Furnace v. Giurbino

Plaintiff, a prisoner at Salinas Valley State Prison, alleges that defendants wrongfully classified him as a gang member in retaliation for filing a section 1983 suit against defendants' colleagues. Plaintiff was denied habeas relief because California courts rejected his claims on the ground that there was sufficient evidence to support the gang validation. Plaintiff then filed the present action under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for violation of his Fourteenth Amendment rights, based on violation of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause. The district court dismissed his suit on claim preclusion grounds. The court concluded that California claim preclusion law governs whether, in light of his earlier state habeas petition, plaintiff's section 1983 claims may be brought in federal court. The court held that the same primary right—defendant's right to be free from unlawful gang validation and placement in the SHU—was at issue in both suits. Because plaintiff's suit involves the same cause of action between the same parties after a final judgment on the merits of the first suit, the court affirmed the district court's judgment. Finally, the court declined defendants' request to assess a strike against defendant under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 28 U.S.C. 1915(g). View "Furnace v. Giurbino" on Justia Law