Bonilla v. Del Norte County Superior Court

Background

Steven Wayne Bonilla, described as a state prisoner, filed multiple complaints without a lawyer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the federal civil-rights statute. The complaints were nearly identical. Bonilla named various state judges and court employees as defendants and sought relief concerning his underlying conviction or the way state and federal courts handled his other cases.

The order also noted that Bonilla had a pending federal petition challenging his imprisonment in the same court with appointed counsel, and that he was represented by counsel in state-court proceedings concerning such a petition.

Reasons for dismissal

The court stated that Bonilla had been disqualified from proceeding without paying the filing fee under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), unless he was in imminent danger of serious physical injury when he filed his complaints. The court found that the allegations did not show imminent danger at the time of filing. Accordingly, Bonilla could not proceed without paying the filing fee.

The court further stated that, even if an application to proceed without paying the filing fee were granted, the lawsuits would be barred under the authorities it cited, including Heck v. Humphrey, Younger v. Harris, Demos v. U.S. District Court, and Mullis v. U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The order did not provide a separate claim-by-claim analysis of those barriers.

Disposition

The court dismissed the cases with prejudice. It directed the clerk to terminate all pending motions and close the cases, and to return without filing any further documents Bonilla submitted in the closed cases. The order was entered by United States District Judge PHYELIS J. HAMILTON.

Classification note

This is a procedural order because the court dismissed the cases based on Bonilla's inability to proceed without paying the filing fee and on threshold legal bars, rather than deciding the underlying civil-rights claims.