United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, Southern Division
OPINION
AND ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S REQUEST FOR AN EXTENSION
OF TIME TO FILE A RESPONSE (DKT. 11), REJECTING
PLAINTIFF'S OBJECTIONS TO THE COURT'S PREVIOUS ORDER
(DKT. 13), DISMISSING THE CLAIM AGAINST JOHN DOE AS UNTIMELY,
DENYING PLAINTIFF'S REQUESTS FOR DISCOVERY (DKT. 6), FOR
WAIVER OF FEES AND COSTS (DKT. 7), FOR APPOINTMENT OF COUNSEL
(DKT. 12, 14), AND TO ALLOW SUPPLEMENTAL PLEADING (DKT. 16),
DISMISSING THE COMPLAINT, AND CLOSING THIS CASE
MARK
A. GOLDSMITH United States District Judge
I.
BACKGROUND
Plaintiff
Tyrone Price, a federal inmate currently housed at the
Federal Correctional Institution in Manchester, Kentucky,
filed a pro se complaint seeking money damages for alleged
violations of his constitutional rights. The two defendants
named on the face of the complaint were the municipal police
department for Saginaw, Michigan, and Covenant Hospital in
Saginaw, Michigan. The body of the complaint and exhibits
attached to the complaint indicated that Price was also suing
Dawn Duranso, who works for the Saginaw Police Department,
and a Saginaw police officer identified as “John
Doe.”
Price
alleged in his complaint that on March 8, 2015, he was a
passenger in a car driven by his pregnant girlfriend, Breanna
Blank. Compl. ¶¶ 1-2, 5 (Dkt. 1). Officer John Doe
was on duty that day, and he drove his patrol car at a high
rate of speed through Saginaw streets without using his
headlights or sirens. Id. ¶ 2. John Doe's
conduct caused Ms. Blank's car to hit a tree.
Id. As a result of the accident, Ms. Blank's
unborn child died, and Price sustained injuries to his back
and to his right leg. Id. ¶¶ 1, 3-4.
Price
further alleged in the complaint that Dawn Duranso of the
Saginaw Police Department refused to send a copy of John
Doe's police report to him, id. ¶¶
7-8, and that staff at Covenant Hospital refused to take
x-rays or an MRI of Price's back and leg. Id.
¶ 9. Price stated that he is disabled
as a result of the accident. Id. ¶ 11. He
claimed that John Doe and Covenant Hospital were deliberately
indifferent to his medical needs and liable under the Eighth
Amendment for the “unnecessary and wanton infliction of
pain.” Id. ¶¶ 4, 6, 10. Price also
claimed that Ms. Duranso violated his Fourteenth Amendment
right to due process and his First Amendment right to
petition the Government for redress of grievances by refusing
to send him a copy of the police report for the incident on
March 8, 2015. Id. ¶ 8.
On
April 8, 2019, the Court dismissed the Saginaw Police
Department, Covenant Hospital, and Dawn Duranso from this
action and ordered Price to show cause why his claim against
John Doe should not be dismissed as untimely. (Dkt. 9). Now
before the Court is Price's response to the Court's
order to show cause (Dkt. 13). Also pending before the Court
are Price's requests for discovery (Dkt. 6), for waiver
of the filing fee (Dkt. 7), for an extension of time to file
a response to the Court's previous order (Dkt. 11), for
appointment of counsel (Dkt. 12, 14), and to allow
supplemental pleading (Dkt. 16). The request for an extension
of time is granted, but the other requests are denied, and
because the Court has concluded that Price's claim
against John Doe is barred by the statute of limitations, the
complaint will be dismissed.
II.
ANALYSIS
A.
The Dismissal of the Saginaw Police Department, Covenant
Hospital, and Dawn Duranso
In his
response to the Court's order to show cause, Price
objects to the Court's dismissal of the Saginaw Police
Department, Covenant Hospital, and Dawn Duranso. The Court
will treat Price's objections as a motion for
reconsideration. This District's Local Rules provide that
-
[g]enerally, and without restricting the Court's
discretion, the Court will not grant motions for rehearing or
reconsideration that merely present the same issues ruled
upon by the Court, either expressly or by reasonable
implication. The movant must not only demonstrate a palpable
defect by which the Court and the parties and other persons
entitled to be heard on the motion have been misled but also
show that correcting the defect will result in a different
disposition of the case.
E.D. Mich. LR 7.1(h)(3). The Court concludes for the
following reasons that Price has failed to show a palpable
defect in the Court's prior order.
i.
The Saginaw Police Department and City of Saginaw
Price
seeks to hold the Saginaw Police Department or the City of
Saginaw liable because John Doe's violation of municipal
policies and rules on speed limits and the use of lights and
sirens caused his injury. Resp. to Op. & Order at 2 (Dkt.
13). The Police Department, however, is not a legal entity
that may be sued under § 1983, Laise v. Utica,
970 F.Supp. 605, 608 (E.D. Mich. 1997), and even though
“[l]ocal governing bodies . . . can be sued directly
under § 1983, ” Monell v. Dep't of Social
Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690 (1978), “a
municipality is liable under § 1983 only if the
challenged conduct occurs pursuant to a municipality's
‘official policy,' such that the municipality's
promulgation or adoption of the policy can be said to have
‘cause[d]' one of its employees to violate the
plaintiff's constitutional rights.”
D'Ambrosio v. Marino, 747 F.3d 378, 386 (6th
Cir. 2014) (citing Monell, 436 U.S. at 692). The
facts alleged in Price's complaint indicate that it was
John Doe's violation of municipal policies and rules that
caused Price's ...