Morris v. State of California
- Haywood Gilliam
- 4:19-cv-02620-HSG
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Morris v. Adams, Judge Gilliam extended the deadline for Tairay Taqwain Morris to file an amended disability-discrimination complaint.
Tairay Taqwain Morris, who was required to file a second amended Americans with Disabilities Act complaint by October 31, 2022 and notify the court of his current address.
What happened
Tairay Taqwain Morris sued Nancy Adams and other defendants. The court had reopened the case, allowed Morris to amend his claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and set a September 26, 2022 deadline.
The court’s earlier order was returned as undeliverable because Morris was no longer housed at San Quentin State Prison. Prison records indicated that he was at Calipatria State Prison instead.
The court granted Morris more time to file his second amended complaint, setting October 31, 2022, as the new deadline. Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. also directed the clerk to send the orders and complaint forms to Morris’s new address and reminded him to report address changes.
The detailed version
- Morris v. State of California · No. 4:19-cv-02620-HSG
- Haywood Gilliam
- Oct. 7, 2022
Background
On August 29, 2022, the court vacated a May 26, 2021 judgment and its April 30, 2020 dismissal with prejudice of Morris’s claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court reopened the action, allowed Morris to amend his disability claim, and ordered him to file a second amended complaint by September 26, 2022.
The August 29 order was returned as undeliverable. The opinion states that Morris appeared to have been moved from San Quentin State Prison, his address of record, to Calipatria State Prison, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate locator.
Order
The court granted Morris an extension of time to file his second amended complaint. The new deadline was October 31, 2022. The complaint had to address the deficiencies in his Americans with Disabilities Act claim.
The court reminded Morris that an amended complaint replaces the earlier complaint and must include all claims and defendants he wished to pursue. He could not incorporate the earlier complaints by reference, add new unrelated claims, or reassert the Eighth Amendment claims against Risenhoover and Adams on which the court had already granted summary judgment. The court stated that failure to file a compliant second amended complaint on time would result in dismissal of the action without further notice for failure to prosecute and/or failure to comply with a court order.
The court also reminded Morris that a self-represented party whose address changes must promptly file and serve a notice of change of address. It stated that the action could be dismissed if Morris did not send the court a written communication showing his current address by November 11, 2022. The clerk was directed to send Morris copies of the order, the August 29 order, and two blank complaint forms at his Calipatria State Prison address.
Disposition and Classification
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. granted the extension of time. This order addressed case administration and filing deadlines; it did not decide the merits of Morris’s remaining Americans with Disabilities Act claim. The order is therefore classified as a procedural order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.