Hall v. Allison
- Edward Davila
- 5:21-cv-00103
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Hall v. Allison, Judge Gilliam denied as moot a deadline motion, granted a discovery stay, and dismissed Steven Tharratt.
Eugene Samuel Hall, the defendants seeking to change the deadline and pause discovery, and Dr. Steven Tharratt, who was dismissed from the case; discovery was stayed until further order.
What happened
In Hall v. Allison, defendants asked the court to change the summary-judgment deadline and pause discovery while their motions to dismiss were pending. The case was brought by Eugene Samuel Hall against Kathleen Allison and others.
The court denied the request to change the summary-judgment deadline as no longer necessary. It granted the unopposed request to pause discovery until further order.
The court also dismissed Dr. Steven Tharratt because the evidence indicated he had died before Hall filed the case, and a deceased person could not be named as a defendant in these circumstances. Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. stated that Hall could pursue a claim against Tharratt’s estate by following California probate procedures.
The detailed version
- Hall v. Allison · No. 5:21-cv-00103
- Edward Davila
- Feb. 11, 2022
Background
Defendants Kathleen Allison, Joseph Bick, Dean Borders, Ron Broomfield, Ron Davis, Ralph Diaz, L. Escobell, and A. Pachynski moved to dismiss Eugene Samuel Hall’s First Amended Complaint. They also moved to vacate, or change, the summary-judgment deadline and to stay discovery. Defendant Clark Kelso later joined that motion. The motions to dismiss remained pending.
The court had ordered service on Dr. Steven Tharratt through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s electronic-service program for prisoner civil-rights cases. The court was informed that Tharratt did not waive personal service because he was deceased. The court twice directed Hall to state whether he wished to continue pursuing the case against Tharratt, but Hall did not respond.
The court took judicial notice of a filing in another case that included an obituary published on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s website. The Attorney General had represented that, to the best of its knowledge, Tharratt died on August 20, 2020. The court found that Tharratt’s death preceded Hall’s filing of this action on January 7, 2021.
Rulings
The court denied as moot the motion to vacate the summary-judgment deadline. It stated that a summary-judgment briefing schedule would issue, if applicable, after the pending motions to dismiss were resolved.
The court granted the unopposed motion to stay discovery. Discovery was stayed until further order.
The court dismissed Defendant Dr. Steven Tharratt from the action. It explained that a dead person could not be made a party to a federal lawsuit in the circumstances described. The court stated that any claim against Tharratt would have to be made against his estate under California Probate Code sections 9350 and following. It also stated that Hall could file a complaint adding the Estate of Dr. Steven Tharratt as a defendant if he wished to proceed. The order terminated Docket No. 33. Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.