Damian Ayarzagoitia v. Corecivic Corporation

NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS SEP 23 2024 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT DAMIAN AYARZAGOITIA, No. 23-15882 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 2:23-cv-00244-JAT-JFM v. MEMORANDUM* CORECIVIC CORPORATION; GERARD BAKER, Correctional Counselor at Saguaro Correctional Center, Defendants-Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona James A. Teilborg, District Judge, Presiding Submitted September 17, 2024** Before: WARDLAW, BADE, and H.A. THOMAS, Circuit Judges. Idaho state prisoner Damian Ayarzagoitia, incarcerated at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging excessive force and conditions-of- * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). confinement claims. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo a dismissal for failure to state a claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. Hamilton v. Brown, 630 F.3d 889, 892 (9th Cir. 2011). We affirm. The district court properly dismissed Ayarzagoitia’s claims against defendant CoreCivic Corporation because Ayarzagoitia failed to allege facts sufficient to show that a policy or custom of CoreCivic’s caused his alleged injury. See Tsao v. Desert Palace, Inc., 698 F.3d 1128, 1138-39 (9th Cir. 2012) (concluding that in a § 1983 action against a private entity, “the constitutional violation must be caused by a policy, practice, or custom of the entity, or be the result of an order by a policy-making officer” (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)). The district court properly dismissed Ayarzagoitia’s excessive force claim because Ayarzagoitia failed to allege facts sufficient to show that defendant Baker acted “maliciously and sadistically to cause harm.” Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 6-7 (1992) (discussing excessive force claims in the prison context). We reject as unsupported by the record Ayarzagoitia’s contentions that the court clerk, rather than Judge Teilborg, dismissed his action with prejudice. AFFIRMED. 2 23-15882