Bonilla v. Tuolumne County Court Clerks Office
- Phyllis Hamilton
- 4:22-cv-05528
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
Judge Hamilton dismissed Bonilla v. Sierra County Clerk’s Office and related cases with prejudice after finding no imminent danger and legal bars.
Steven Wayne Bonilla and the county clerk’s-office defendants in the listed cases; all pending motions were terminated and the cases were closed.
What happened
In Bonilla v. Sierra County Clerk’s Office, Steven Wayne Bonilla filed multiple nearly identical civil-rights lawsuits without a lawyer against county clerk’s offices. He challenged his conviction and how other state and federal cases had been handled.
Bonilla sought to proceed without paying filing fees. The court said he was barred from doing so unless he showed that he faced imminent danger of serious physical injury when he filed, and found that his complaints did not make that showing.
The court also said the lawsuits would be barred even if he could proceed without paying fees, under several legal doctrines. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton dismissed the cases with prejudice, terminated pending motions, and closed the cases.
The detailed version
- Bonilla v. Tuolumne County Court Clerks Office · No. 4:22-cv-05528
- Phyllis Hamilton
- Oct. 5, 2022
Background
Steven Wayne Bonilla, a state prisoner, filed multiple nearly identical civil-rights complaints under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 without a lawyer. He named numerous county clerk’s offices as defendants. The opinion says he sought relief concerning his underlying conviction and the handling of his other cases by state and federal courts. The opinion also notes that he had a pending federal petition challenging his custody and was represented by counsel in state-court proceedings concerning his custody.
Filing-fee status
Bonilla was subject to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), which generally prevents a prisoner who has accumulated qualifying prior dismissals from proceeding without paying the filing fee unless he was in imminent danger of serious physical injury when he filed. The court found that the complaints did not show such imminent danger. As a result, Bonilla could not proceed without paying the filing fee.
Court’s ruling
The court further stated that, even if Bonilla’s applications to proceed without paying the filing fee were granted, the lawsuits would be barred under Heck v. Humphrey, Younger v. Harris, Demos v. U.S. District Court, or Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The opinion therefore ordered that the cases be dismissed with prejudice. It also directed the clerk to terminate all pending motions, close the cases, and return without filing any further documents Bonilla submitted in the closed cases. Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.