Johnson v. Broomfield

Background

Paul David Johnson, identified as a California prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, filed this civil-rights action against Ronald Broomfield and other defendants. He asked to proceed without paying the filing fee. The court denied that request under 42 U.S.C. § 1915(g), which limits a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees after certain prior cases, and directed him either to pay the filing fee or show why the restriction did not apply.

The payment deadline passed without Johnson paying the fee. He filed an opposition to the denial of his fee-waiver request, which the court treated as his attempt to show why Section 1915(g) should not apply.

Court’s analysis

Johnson relied on the statute’s exception for a prisoner facing “imminent danger” of serious physical harm. He said he contracted COVID-19 at Salinas Valley State Prison in May 2020 and September 2022, where the opinion states he was housed when he filed the case.

The court explained that imminent danger is assessed when the complaint is filed. Because Johnson filed this case in December, the court concluded that his earlier COVID-19 infections did not establish an imminent danger at that time. The court also said that the availability of an effective COVID-19 vaccine precluded a claim that the virus posed an imminent danger, and noted that Johnson did not allege the vaccine was unavailable to him. The court found that neither the complaint nor his opposition showed that he faced imminent danger of serious harm when he filed the case.

Disposition

Judge Jeffrey White concluded that Johnson had neither paid the filing fee nor shown why Section 1915(g) did not prevent him from proceeding without paying it. The court dismissed the case without prejudice to Johnson filing his claims in a future case in which he pays the filing fee. The Clerk was ordered to enter judgment and close the file.