(PC) Ramirez v. Pfeiffer
(PC) Ramirez v. Pfeiffer
Trial Court Opinion
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4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 7 8 9 NARCISO RAMIREZ, No. 1:23-cv-01554-SAB (PC) 10 Plaintiff, ORDER TRANSFERRING ACTION TO UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR 11 v. THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 12 C. PFEIFFER, et al. 13 Defendants. 14 Plaintiff is proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis in this action filed pursuant to 42
15 U.S.C. § 1983. 16 Plaintiff filed the original complaint in this action on November 3, 2023, and prior to 17 screening of the complaint, Plaintiff filed a first amended complaint as a matter of right under 18 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a) on November 17, 2023. (ECF No. 10.) In the first 19 amended complaint, Plaintiff named prison officials at Kern Valley State Prison, as Defendants. 20 (Id. at 2.) 21 On December 26, 2023, Plaintiff submitted another amended complaint which was lodged 22 by the Court. (ECF No. 11.) On January 3, 2024, the Court returned the lodged complaint to 23 Plaintiff, noting “Plaintiff has exercised his right to amend the complaint by filing a first amended 24 complaint on November 17, 2023, which will be screened in due course. In addition, based on a 25 cursory review of the proposed amended complaint, Plaintiff has added new Defendants and different 26 factual allegations than those presented in the first amended complaint. Further, the alleged events in 27 the proposed amended complaint took place at Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP) which is located in 28 1 the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, venue is improper in th[at] 2 Court.” (ECF No. 12 at 1-2.) 3 On January 8, 2024, the Court screened the first amended complaint, found no cognizable 4 claims, and granted Plaintiff leave to file an amended complaint. (ECF No. 13.) Plaintiff filed a 5 second amended complaint on March 11, 2024. (ECF No. 25.) 6 Based on a review of Plaintiff’s second amended complaint, this district is no longer the 7 proper venue. The federal venue statute provides that a civil action “may be brought in (1) a 8 judicial district in which any defendant resides, if all defendants are residents of the State in 9 which the district is located, (2) a judicial district in which a substantial part of the events or 10 omissions giving rise to the claim occurred, or a substantial part of property that is the subject of 11 the action is situated, or (3) if there is no district in which an action may otherwise be brought as 12 provided in this action, any judicial district in which any defendant is subject to the court's 13 personal jurisdiction with respect to such action.”
28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). 14 In the second amended complaint, Plaintiff names prison officials at Salinas Valley State 15 Prison as the Defendants and acknowledges the incident at issue took place at Salinas Valley 16 State Prison. (ECF No. 25, at 1-2.) Thus, under the second amended complaint, venue properly 17 lies in United Stated District Court for the Northern District of California. In the interest of 18 justice, a federal court may transfer a complaint filed in the wrong district to the correct district. 19 See
28 U.S.C. § 1406(a); Starnes v. McGuire,
512 F.2d 918, 932(D.C. Cir. 1974). 20 Based on the foregoing, it is HEREBY ORDERED that: 21 1. This instant action is transferred to the United States District Court for the 22 Northern District of California; and 23 /// 24 /// 25 /// 26 /// 27 /// 28 /// 1 2. All future filings shall refer to the new Northern District case number assigned and 2 shall be filed at: 3 Robert F. Peckham Federal Building & 4 280 South Ist Street, Room 2112 5 San Jose, CA 95113
6 IT IS SO ORDERED. Al oe , | Dated: _March 14, 2024 OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Reference
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