Inmates at the El Dorado and South Lake Tahoe jails filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 class action lawsuit against county officials in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on June 28, 1990. The case was originally assigned to Judge John F. Moulds, but was refereed to Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows for settlement purposes. Plaintiffs were represented by the Prisoner Rights Union.

The case settled at conference, including a limitation on the population of both the Placerville and South Lake Tahoe jails. The stipulation and order of settlement was signed December 17, 1993. It expressly reflected that the case was to be dismissed with prejudice upon approval of the settlement and contained no provision for the retention of jurisdiction by the district court for enforcement purposes. The final judgment of dismissal was entered on January 18, 1994.

After the final judgment of dismissal, the defendant County asked the court to terminate the injunctive relief agreed to by the parties for the primary purpose of avoiding the jail population cap applicable to the South Lake Tahoe jail. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California (Judge Gregory G. Hollows) held that it did not have jurisdiction to enter the order under the Prison Litigation Reform Act or under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) because the case was dismissed with prejudice and the court had not retained jurisdiction to do anything else in the case. York v. Cnty. of El Dorado, 119 F. Supp. 2d 1106 (E.D. Cal. 2000).

Kristen Sagar - 02/19/2006


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