(PC)Almaraz

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 JOSE LUIS ALMARAZ, No. 2: 20-cv-2444 KJN P Plaintiff, v. ORDER AND FINDINGS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

COUNTY OF SAN JOAQUIN, et al., Defendants. 16 Plaintiff is a county prisoner, proceeding without counsel, with a civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Attached to plaintiff’s complaint is a request to bring this action as a class action. (ECF No. 1 at 20-26.) For the reasons stated herein, the undersigned recommends that plaintiff’s request to bring a class action be denied. Plaintiff is a non-lawyer proceeding without counsel. It is well established that a layperson cannot ordinarily represent the interests of a class. See McShane v. United States, 366 F.2d 286 (9th Cir. 1966). This rule becomes almost absolute when, as here, the putative class representative is incarcerated and proceeding pro se. Oxendine v. Williams, 509 F.2d 1405, 1407 (4th Cir. 1975). In direct terms, plaintiff cannot “fairly and…