Trackwell v. U.S. Government

• Decision Date: 05 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-3003.,06-3003.
• Citation: 472 F.3d 1242
• Parties: Byron L. TRACKWELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1242

472 F.3d 1242

Byron L. TRACKWELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 06-3003.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

January 5, 2007.

Submitted on the briefs:^*

Byron L. Trackwell, Pro Se.

Eric F. Melgren, United States Attorney, D. Brad Bailey, Assistant United States Attorney, District of Kansas, Topeka, KS, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before HARTZ, ANDERSON, and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges.

HARTZ, Circuit Judge.

Byron L. Trackwell, proceeding pro se, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, alleging that the Clerk of the United States Supreme Court had repeatedly withheld from Justice Stephen Breyer an application he submitted that challenged the constitutionality of the Iraq War. The complaint asserted that the Clerk's failure to transmit his application violated his First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of his grievances and was improper under Supreme Court Rule 22.1, which provides, "An application addressed to an individual Justice shall be filed with the Clerk, who will transmit it promptly to the Justice concerned if an individual Justice has authority to grant the sought relief." Sup.Ct. R. 22.1. The prayer for relief asked the district court to order the Clerk to transmit the application to Justice Breyer and to order the Supreme Court itself to docket his case and address his claims.

The government filed a motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) and (6) to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The district court granted the motion, and this appeal followed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We hold that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear the complaint. In particular, we hold that the mandamus statute relied upon by Mr. Trackwell, 28 U.S.C. § 1361, does not apply to courts or to court clerks performing judicial functions.

Discussion

We review de novo the district court's dismissal of an action for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction or for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. See U.S. West, Inc. v. Tristani, 182 F.3d 1202, 1206 (10th Cir.1999) (subject-matter jurisdiction); Sutton v. Utah State Sch. for the Deaf & Blind, 173 F.3d 1226, 1236 (10th Cir.1999) (failure to state a claim). Because Mr. Trackwell appears pro se, we review his pleadings and other papers liberally and hold them to a less stringent standard than those drafted by attorneys. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972); Hall v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 & n. 3 (10th Cir.1991).

A. Identification of Proper Defendants

Before reviewing the merits of the district court's dismissal, we first must resolve who the proper defendants are in this action. In the captions of his complaint and his amended complaint, Mr. Trackwell named only the "United States Government" as a defendant. As the district court noted, however, "he actually seeks relief against the Clerk of the Supreme Court . . . and [the] Court itself." R. Doc. 23 at 6 n. 2. This was a proper reading of Mr. Trackwell's pleadings. The general rule is that in the caption of the complaint, "the title of the action shall include the names of all the parties." Fed. R.Civ.P. 10(a). But in a pro se case when the plaintiff names the wrong defendant in the caption or when the identity of the defendants is unclear from the caption, courts may look to the body of the complaint to determine who the intended and proper defendants are. See Johnson v. Johnson, 466 F.3d 1213, 1215-16 (10th Cir. 2006); Rice v. Hamilton Air Force Base Commissary, 720 F.2d 1082, 1085 (9th Cir. 1983).

It is clear from the body of Mr. Trackwell's pleadings that he seeks relief from the Supreme Court and its Clerk. This does not, however, end the inquiry as to the Clerk, for we must further consider whether the claim is against the Clerk in his individual or his official capacity. When, as here, "the complaint fails to specify the capacity in which the government official is sued, we look to the substance of the pleadings and the course of the proceedings in order to determine whether the suit is for individual or official liability." Pride v. Does, 997 F.2d 712, 715 (10th Cir.1993). Mr. Trackwell has not sought damages. And his request that the Clerk transmit his application to Justice Breyer is an act that the Clerk can perform only in his official capacity. Accordingly, we construe Mr. Trackwell's claim against the Clerk as an official-capacity claim. See Simmat v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons, 413 F.3d 1225, 1234 (10th Cir. 2005) (mandamus remedy is applied "to require a public official to perform a duty imposed upon him in his official capacity").

B. Jurisdiction

In district court Mr. Trackwell invoked subject-matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343, 1346, and 1361. In granting the motion to dismiss, the court reasoned that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction under §§ 1331 and 1343(a)(4) because neither statute waives the United States' sovereign immunity, see Neighbors for Rational Dev., Inc. v. Norton, 379 F.3d 956, 960-61 (10th Cir.2004) (§ 1331); Salazar v. Heckler, 787 F.2d 527, 528-29 (10th Cir.1986) (§ 1343(a)(4)), and Mr. Trackwell had not identified any other statute waiving immunity. In particular, the court determined that Mr. Trackwell could not assert the waiver of sovereign immunity for actions against "an agency or an officer or employee thereof" under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 702, because the APA's definition of agency explicitly excludes "the courts of the United States," 5 U.S.C. § 701(b)(1)(B). See Dotson v. Griesa, 398 F.3d 156, 177 n. 15 (2d Cir.2005), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2859, 165 L.Ed.2d 894 (2006). The court further concluded that a provision of the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(2), which authorizes suits for money damages against the United States, does not waive sovereign immunity for Mr. Trackwell's equitable claims. See Richardson v. Morris, 409 U.S. 464, 465, 93 S.Ct. 629, 34 L.Ed.2d 647 (1973) (per curiam). We agree with the court's reasoning and affirm these rulings. Sovereign immunity extends to both the Supreme Court, see Gregory v. United States/U.S. Bankr.Ct., 942 F.2d 1498, 1499-1500 (10th Cir.1991) (affirming dismissal of complaint for damages against various federal courts on ground of sovereign immunity), and the Clerk in his official capacity, see Kyler v. Everson, 442 F.3d 1251, 1252-53 (10th Cir.2006) (sovereign immunity extends to official-capacity claims against agents or officers of the United States).

We disagree, however, with the district court's treatment of 28 U.S.C. § 1361, which provides federal district courts with "original jurisdiction of any action in the nature of mandamus to compel an officer or employee of the United States or any agency thereof to perform a duty owed to the plaintiff." The court stated that § 1361 does not waive sovereign immunity. But, as we recently pronounced, the "application of the mandamus remedy to require a public official to perform a duty imposed upon him in his official capacity is not limited by sovereign immunity." Simmat, 413 F.3d at 1234. Sovereign immunity therefore does not bar a district court from exercising subject-matter jurisdiction granted under § 1361.

As an alternative to its holding that sovereign immunity barred jurisdiction under § 1361, the district court determined that Mr. Trackwell had not demonstrated that he was entitled to mandamus relief. On this point the court was in good company. Two circuits confronting actions seeking § 1361 mandamus relief against the Supreme Court Clerk have held that the plaintiff failed to make one or more of the showings required to justify a writ of mandamus. See Borntrager v. Stevas, 772 F.2d 419, 420 (8th Cir.1985) (adequate alternative remedy); Panko v. Rodak, 606 F.2d 168, 170-71 & n. 6 (7th Cir.1979) (no clear right or plain duty). But these cases failed to decide whether the district court possessed jurisdiction to consider the claim. Such a failure may have been justified at one time under the practice of assuming jurisdiction but dismissing the claim on the merits (sometimes termed the exercise of "hypothetical jurisdiction"). It is now clear, however, that a court must have jurisdiction before it can rule on the merits. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 93-94, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998). Therefore, we turn to whether the court had jurisdiction under § 1361.

Section 1361 grants district courts original jurisdiction over any action in the nature of mandamus brought to compel the performance of a duty owed to a plaintiff by "an officer or employee of the United States or any agency thereof." 28 U.S.C. § 1361. Jurisdiction exists for Mr. Trackwell's claim against the Supreme Court only if the Court is an "agency." For purposes of Title 28 of the United States Code, the term agency is defined to include "any department, independent establishment, commission, administration, authority, board or bureau of the United States or any corporation in which the United States has a proprietary interest, unless the context shows that such term was intended to be used in a more limited sense." 28 U.S.C. § 451. The term department is defined as "one of the executive departments enumerated in section 1 of Title 5, unless the context shows that such term was intended to describe the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of the government." Id.

This definition of agency does not encompass the Supreme Court. In Hubbard v. United States, 514 U.S. 695, 115 S.Ct. 1754, 131 L.Ed.2d 779 (1995), the Supreme Court construed the identical definitions (although appearing in 18 U.S.C. § 6, rather than 28 U.S.C. § 451) in determining whether a false statement in a bankruptcy proceeding violated 18 U.S.C. § 1001,...