Plaintiff is a county inmate proceeding pro se in this civil rights action filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. On May 15, 2020 the court directed plaintiff to notify the court within 21 days whether he wanted to proceed on the original complaint as screened by the court or whether he wanted the court to screen his first amended complaint. Rather than return the attached Notice of Election, plaintiff filed a “Notice of Clarification” indicating that he was attempting to add to the allegations of the original complaint by filing a first amended complaint. ECF No. 13 at 2.

However, on the same day, plaintiff also returned the service documents for defendant Scott Jones along with two copies of the original complaint. ECF No. 15.

The court once again instructs plaintiff that the court cannot refer to a prior pleading in order to make plaintiff’s first amended complaint complete. Local Rule 220 requires that an amended complaint be complete in itself without reference to any prior pleading. This is because, as a general rule, an amended complaint supersedes the original complaint. See Loux v. Rhay, *2 375 F.2d 55, 57 (9th Cir. 1967). Therefore, the court will not proceed to serve the original complaint on defendant Jones at this time based on the pending first amended complaint.

Plaintiff will be granted one last opportunity to file the attached notice of election as required by the court’s prior order. Failure to respond will result in a recommendation that this action be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute pursuant to Rule 41(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff is granted one last extension of time to respond to the court’s May 15, 2020 order by returning the attached Notice of Election form within 21 days from the date of this order.

_____________________________________ C A R O L YN K . D EL AN E Y UN I TE D S T A TE S M AG I S T R A TE J UDG E Dated: June 18, 2020 12/bell0793.eot.docx

*3 Plaintiff, No. 2:20-cv-00793 WBS CKD NOTICE OF ELECTION

Defendants.

You must choose ONE AND ONLY ONE option listed below and return it to the court: _____ Plaintiff wants to proceed on the original complaint as screened by the court’s order of May 4, 2020; or,

_____ Plaintiff wants the court to screen the first amended complaint filed on May 1, 2020.

DATED:

________________________________ Plaintiff