Bernardino v. Diaz
- Edward Davila
- 5:21-cv-01629
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In Bernardino v. Diaz, Judge Davila granted party substitution, denied a second extension as moot, and ordered service and next steps.
Claudio Bernardino Jr., Dr. Eduardo Domingues, the other defendants, and the court personnel and agencies responsible for service and future filings.
What happened
In Bernardino v. Diaz, Claudio Bernardino Jr., a state prisoner representing himself, sued Ralph Diaz and others under a federal civil-rights law. The amended complaint had identified a prison doctor as “Dr. John Doe,” and the court had allowed Bernardino to seek that doctor’s name through discovery.
Bernardino identified Dr. John Doe as Dr. Eduardo Domingues and moved to substitute Domingues as a defendant. The court granted that motion and denied Bernardino’s request for a second extension of time as moot.
The court ordered that Domingues be served and directed the defendants to file a summary-judgment or other case-ending motion within 91 days, or to notify the court if summary judgment was not appropriate. Judge Davila also set deadlines for Bernardino’s response and the defendants’ reply and provided instructions about service, discovery, and communications.
The detailed version
- Bernardino v. Diaz · No. 5:21-cv-01629
- Edward Davila
- May 11, 2023
Background
Claudio Bernardino Jr., a state prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, brought a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the warden and prison officers at Salinas Valley State Prison and against Ralph Diaz, identified in the opinion as the Secretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Bernardino’s amended complaint was the operative complaint.
The court had previously allowed Bernardino to move to replace “Dr. John Doe” with the doctor’s proper name if Bernardino could identify him through discovery. Bernardino moved to substitute Dr. Eduardo Domingues for Dr. John Doe. He also moved for a second extension of time to identify the Doe defendant.
Rulings
The court granted the motion to substitute party. All references to “Dr. John Doe” in the amended complaint were to be replaced with “Dr. Eduardo Domingues.” The court denied the motion for a second extension of time as moot.
The court directed that Domingues be served at Salinas Valley State Prison through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s electronic service process for prisoner civil-rights cases. The order described procedures for the department, the California Attorney General’s Office, the clerk, and the United States Marshals Service to complete or waive service.
Next steps
The defendants were ordered to file a motion for summary judgment or another dispositive motion concerning the claims the court had found legally cognizable no later than 91 days after the order was filed. A dispositive motion is a motion seeking to resolve a case or claim without a trial. The order also set a 28-day deadline for Bernardino’s opposition and a 14-day deadline for the defendants’ reply. It stated that discovery could proceed under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and reminded Bernardino that failing to oppose a summary-judgment motion could result in judgment against him without a trial.
The order terminated Docket Nos. 62 and 63. It did not decide the merits of Bernardino’s civil-rights claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.