Flournoy v. Contra Costa County

Background

James Henry Flournoy, who was proceeding without a lawyer, was incarcerated at the Marin County Jail and facing parole-revocation proceedings on prior convictions and pretrial proceedings on new criminal charges. He filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against numerous officials at the Contra Costa County Jail, where he had previously been incarcerated.

The complaint alleged more than a dozen separate federal civil-rights violations, including medical malpractice and negligence, retaliation, and excessive force by different officials. On November 30, 2021, the court screened the complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. The court dismissed the medical malpractice and negligence claim with leave to amend and dismissed the other claims without prejudice to filing them in separate actions.

The court instructed Flournoy that an amended medical claim needed specific dates and facts showing how each medical defendant was deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs. The court explained that negligence or gross negligence alone was not enough and warned that failing to file a proper amended complaint within 28 days would result in dismissal.

Disposition

More than 40 days passed after the November 30 order. Flournoy neither filed an amended complaint nor requested an extension of time. The court accordingly dismissed this action without prejudice. It also instructed the clerk to close the file and terminate all pending motions as moot.

Judge Charles R. Breyer’s order dismissed the action because Flournoy did not comply with the court’s amendment deadline; the order did not resolve the underlying allegations on their merits.