Partial Motion to Dismiss:
Defendant moves to dismiss Count I (Constitutional Rights Violation–CS814) pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
Plaintiff’s Count I, titled "Constitutional Rights Violation–CS814", fails to allege sufficient facts to support a plausible claim for relief under the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and applies primarily in the context of incarceration or criminal sentencing. The Complaint contains only conclusory statements and lacks factual content necessary to establish that Defendant engaged in conduct that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, or that Defendant acted with deliberate indifference to a serious risk of harm. Accordingly, dismissal is proper under Rule 12(b)(6).
Plaintiff’s complaint relies on conclusory statements, such as “the conditions were cruel”, without providing specific factual allegations regarding how the alleged treatment constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Without such facts, the complaint fails to state a plausible claim for relief and must be dismissed.
Plaintiff alleges that, at the time of arrest, they were already experiencing “significant effects of starvation and dehydration”, and that Defendant’s failure to provide food or water for at most one hour while detained in a holding cell violated the Plaintiff's constitutional rights. However, Plaintiff’s Complaint lacks any factual support—such as medical records, expert testimony, or contemporaneous observations—to substantiate these claims or to show that Defendant was deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of harm.
To state an Eighth Amendment claim for denial of basic human needs, a plaintiff must allege an objectively serious deprivation that poses a substantial risk of harm to themselves, as well as the defendant’s subjective deliberate indifference to that risk of harm. Here, Plaintiff’s conclusory assertions do not meet this standard and fail to state a plausible claim for relief.
Accordingly, Count I should be dismissed pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6).
