Smith v. California Department of Corrections

MEMORANDUM **

Robert A. Smith, a California state prisoner, appeals pro se the district court’s summary judgment for defendants in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging failure to protect and excessive force. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo, Jackson v. City of Bremerton, 268 F.3d 646, 650 (9th Cir. 2001), and we affirm.

Smith alleged that the defendants failed to protect him from prison gang members who had put out a contract on his life. The district court properly determined that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity because the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to Smith, does not show that reasonable officials in the defendants’ position would have clearly understood that their response or non-response to Smith’s concerns about a gang contract was unlawful. See Estate of Ford v. Ramirez-Palmer, 301 F.3d 1043, 1050-52 (9th Cir.2002) (concluding that officers were entitled to qualified immunity because a reasonable official could have believed that violent inmate did not pose substantial safety risk to his cellmate).

Further, the district court properly determined that Officer Gonsalves was entitled to qualified…