Daniel C. Ramsey v. N. Thompson

Summary

This Report and Recommendation addresses Defendant N. Thompson’s motion for partial dismissal of Daniel C. Ramsey’s Second Amended Complaint in a prisoner civil-rights action. The court recommends dismissal without leave to amend of Ramsey’s Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process claim and any substantive due process claim, concluding that he alleged no protected liberty interest in his medical classification, prison facility, or transfer location. The court also grants in part and denies in part Ramsey’s motion for judicial notice.

Holdings

1. Ramsey failed to state a procedural due process claim because he did not allege deprivation of a constitutionally protected liberty or property interest. A prisoner has no constitutional right to be housed in a particular facility, to retain a particular classification, or to be housed near friends and family absent an allegation that the classification change was made for an unconstitutional reason.
2. The denial or handling of Ramsey's prison grievance did not support a Fourteenth Amendment due process claim because a prison grievance procedure is a procedural mechanism and does not create a substantive liberty interest requiring constitutional procedures.
3. To the extent Ramsey alleged a substantive due process claim concerning his cell conditions, the claim failed because the Eighth Amendment is the specific constitutional provision governing an incarcerated person's challenge to conditions of confinement.
4. Defendant Thompson was entitled to qualified immunity on the Fourteenth Amendment claims because, taking the allegations in the light most favorable to Ramsey, her alleged conduct did not violate a federal right.
5. The court denied in part as moot Ramsey's request to file documents as exhibits, granted judicial notice of the existence of documents attached as Exhibit D but not the truth of their contents, denied judicial notice of handwritten notes in Exhibit E, and granted judicial notice of specified California Code of Regulations, Title 15 provisions.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Ramsey stated a Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process claim based on his transfer to a different prison, change in medical classification, lack of a hearing, and handling of his grievance.
2. Whether Ramsey stated a Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claim based on the alleged conditions of his cell and related prison conduct.
3. Whether Defendant Thompson was entitled to qualified immunity on the Fourteenth Amendment claims.
4. Whether the court should take judicial notice of documents attached to the Second Amended Complaint and of specified California prison regulations.

Disposition

other