Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_16-cv-02540/USCOURTS-cand-3_16-cv-02540-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Alameda County
Defendant
Steven Wayne Bonilla
Plaintiff

Document Text:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

STEVEN WAYNE BONILLA,

Plaintiff,

v.

ALAMEDA COUNTY,

Defendant.

Case No. 16-cv-02540-VC (PR)

ORDER DISMISSING CASE WITHOUT

PREJUDICE

Plaintiff Steven Wayne Bonilla is a state prisoner who challenges the constitutionality of 

his criminal conviction in the Alameda County Superior Court. This case was filed as a civil 

rights case. 

“Federal law opens two main avenues to relief on complaints related to imprisonment: a 

petition for habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, and a complaint under the Civil Rights Act . . . . 

Challenges to the lawfulness of confinement or to particulars affecting its duration are the 

province of habeas corpus.” Hill v. McDonough, 547 U.S. 573, 579 (2006); Skinner v. Switzer, 

562 U.S. 521, 524 (2011) (Habeas is the “exclusive remedy” for the prisoner who seeks 

“‘immediate or speedier release’” from confinement). “An inmate's challenge to the 

circumstances of his confinement, however, may be brought under § 1983.” Id. A civil rights 

complaint seeking habeas relief should be dismissed without prejudice to bringing it as a petition 

for writ of habeas corpus. Trimble v. City of Santa Rosa, 49 F.3d 583, 586 (9th Cir. 1995)

(dismissal without prejudice provides safeguard from rule against successive petitions preventing 

prisoner from having a federal court address all of his claims).

Case 3:16-cv-02540-VC Document 3 Filed 05/24/16 Page 1 of 2
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Because Bonilla challenges the lawfulness of his confinement, this case should be

brought as a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Therefore, it is 

dismissed without prejudice to bringing it as a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. 

The Clerk of the Court shall send Bonilla a blank copy of the Court’s form for a petition 

for a writ of habeas, enter a separate judgment and close the file.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated:

______________________________________

VINCE CHHABRIA

United States District Judge

May 24, 2016

Case 3:16-cv-02540-VC Document 3 Filed 05/24/16 Page 2 of 2