Cofield v. Ala. Public Service Com'n

• Citation: 936 F.2d 512
• Decision Date: 22 July 1991
• Docket Number: No. 89-7787,89-7787
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)
• Parties: Sir Keenan Kester COFIELD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ALA. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, its regulator body; South Central Bell, et al., its divisions and subsidiaries, AT & T, et al., its divisions and subsidiary, Ala. Dept. of Corrections, Defendants, Morris L. Thigpen, Commissioner, individually and in his official capacity, John E. Nagle, Warden, West Jefferson Corr. Facility, Defendants-Appellees.

Page 512

936 F.2d 512

Sir Keenan Kester COFIELD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ALA. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, its regulator body; South Central Bell, et al., its divisions and subsidiaries, AT & T, et al., its divisions and subsidiary, Ala Dept. of Corrections Defendants Morris L. Thigpen, Commissioner, individually and in his official capacity, John E. Nagle, Warden, West Jefferson Corr. Facility, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 89-7787.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

July 22, 1991.

John C. Robbins, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellant.

Horace N. Lynn, Alabama Dept. of Corrections, Montgomery, Ala., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before JOHNSON and COX, Circuit Judges, and GODBOLD, Senior Circuit Judge.

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge:

This case arises as a result of the district court's sua sponte dismissal with prejudice of all of Sir Keenan Cofield's present suits and its order requiring Cofield to pay full filing fees and seek prefiling approval of any complaints or papers filed by Cofield in the future.

I. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

A. Background Facts

Cofield is an overly litigious fellow. Among the many suits he has brought from his jail cell are suits against both McDonald's and Burger King for using pork fat in the oil used to fry french fried potatoes, thereby poisoning his body, mind and soul. He has brought at least three libel actions against various newspapers for prematurely printing his obituary. ¹ He also brought an action against Coca-Cola alleging that a bottle of Coke he drank was filled with ground glass. He has threatened or sued various restaurants in various cities alleging food poisoning; it was later discovered that Cofield was incarcerated at the time he supposedly was eating in these restaurants. The majority of his suits, however, have been against various prison officials. In the Northern District of Alabama, Cofield has filed thirty-nine cases, in the Middle District thirty-two cases, and in the Southern District eight cases. In the state courts he has filed sixteen cases in the Bessemer division and ten cases in the Birmingham division of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County.

B. Procedural History

Cofield filed the underlying suit against prison officials and AT & T in June of 1986. In June of 1989, the magistrate judge recommended that the defendants be granted summary judgment. The district court adopted the magistrate judge's report and granted summary judgment on July 12, 1989. Twenty days later, Cofield filed an untimely motion to vacate the judgment. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e) (requiring motion to be filed in ten days). Thirty-three days after the judgment, Cofield filed an untimely notice of appeal. See Fed.R.App.P. 4(a)(1) (requiring notice to be filed within thirty days).

Meanwhile, on August 23, 1989, the district court, sua sponte, issued an order to show cause asking why Cofield should not be sanctioned for his overly litigious behavior. A hearing was held on August 31, 1989. On September 11, 1989, Cofield filed a motion in this Court admitting the untimeliness of his notice of appeal in the underlying suit and asking this Court to dismiss the appeal; we dismissed the suit. On September 26, 1989, the district court ordered all actions filed by Cofield then pending in the Northern District of Alabama dismissed as frivolous and the district court imposed several conditions upon Cofield's future use of the courts. Cofield brought this timely appeal of the district court's sanctions.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Jurisdiction

Cofield in his pro se brief suggests that district court judges are bound by the time limits in rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which requires litigants to file motions for a new trial within ten days. The thrust of Cofield's argument is that it is unfair that he must file for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial within ten days of the entry of judgment and district courts are not similarly constrained. Cofield argues that the district court lacked jurisdiction to order him to show cause because the order was issued more than ten days after the judgment in the underlying action. Cofield's arguments are without merit. Rule 59 sets time limits only for litigants. Because neither party filed a timely notice of appeal, the district court retained jurisdiction in the matter.

B. The Merits

The district court ordered all of Cofield's present suits dismissed with prejudice. The court ordered Cofield to pay the full filing fees for all future lawsuits and to seek judicial approval for any complaints or papers filed in the future. In the opinion accompanying this order, the district court made several findings of fact. Cofield challenges the district court's findings of fact as well as the order.

1. The Dismissal of all of Cofield's Present Suits

Judge Acker, with the permission of the other active judges in the Northern District, ² dismissed as frivolous all seven ³ of Cofield's present suits. All seven of Cofield's suits were filed in forma pauperis pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1915 (West 1966 & Supp.1991).

A district judge, under the statute, "may dismiss [a] case ... if satisfied that the action is frivolous or malicious." 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1915(d). While most cases that are deemed frivolous are dismissed at the pleadings stage, see, e.g., Campbell v. Beto, 460 F.2d 765 (5th Cir.1972), our Circuit has recognized that despite the fact that the court may have reviewed the complaint and granted in forma pauperis status when the complaint was initially filed, "section 1915(d) empowers the court to dismiss the complaint [at any later date, if] the court later determines the action is frivolous or that the affidavit of poverty is untrue." Camp v. Oliver, 798 F.2d 434 (11th Cir.1986).

The Supreme Court in Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989), explained that the courts should strive to treat paying and non-paying litigants alike. Id. at 329, 109 S.Ct. at 1833. The Supreme Court, however, recognized that the courts subject only non-paying litigants' pleadings to a review for frivolity. The Supreme Court explained that it was acceptable for section 1915(d) to treat non-paying litigants differently because financial disincentives such as filing fees, court costs and rule 11 sanctions act to discourage paying litigants from filing frivolous law suits. Id. at 324, 109 S.Ct. at 1830. Thus the purpose of the frivolity review is to filter non-paying litigants' lawsuits through a screening process functionally similar to the one created by the financial disincentives that help deter the filing of frivolous lawsuits by paying litigants.

The issue confronting the Court in Neitzke was how the courts should apply the frivolity test. The Court began its analysis by stating that the lower courts should keep in mind the purposes of the frivolity provision when dismissing cases. Id. at 327, 109 S.Ct. at 1832. The Court in Neitzke held that a case is frivolous if "it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact." Id. at 325, 109 S.Ct. at 1831. In the event that the claim is arguable, but ultimately will be unsuccessful, the Court stressed that it must be treated like the claims brought by paying litigants and should survive frivolity review. The Court's decision was predicated on the notion that our procedural rules structure the adversarial process in a way designed to minimize decisional error. See id. at 329-30, 109 S.Ct. at 1833-34. The Court therefore noted that only a limited class of cases should be deemed frivolous; non-frivolous but weak cases, the Court recognized, are best dealt with on motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment. The Court explained that cases which lack an arguable basis in law are those cases which are "indisputably meritless." Id. at 327, 109 S.Ct. at 1832. The Court further noted that an individual may state a claim that is capable of surviving a 12(b)(6) motion yet the claim may nonetheless be dismissed as frivolous because the factual contentions are so far-fetched or baseless. Id. at 327, 109 S.Ct. at 1832. Moreover, as the Neitzke Court noted, frivolity review will eliminate farfetched cases because, unlike 12(b)(6) motions, a judge performing an examination for frivolity under section 1915(d) is not required to assume the truth of the allegations.

With these standards in mind, we turn to the district court's dismissal of the seven cases. We review a district court's dismissal of a case under section 1915(d) under the abuse of discretion standard. See Camp v. Oliver, 798 F.2d at 437. That discretion, however, is far from limitless. As has already been noted, a district court may dismiss a case for frivolity only when the legal claim is indisputably meritless, the facts are far-fetched or baseless, or both. After carefully reviewing the record, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion because the cases were all frivolous. Some of the cases alleged the fantastic, see Cofield v. Thigpen, 87-PT-2091-S (The complaint contains a rambling account of a conspiracy of prison officials to bribe Cofield into investigating improper behavior by other prison officials. Cofield, allegedly, was placed into administrative detention when he refused the bribe.); other cases were merely meritless, see Cofield v. Smith, 88-AR-859-S (suing because the cost of phone calls was too high). In the final analysis they are all frivolous.

Cofield claims in the alternative that the district court abused its discretion by dismissing all of Cofield's pending cases without individually reviewing the merits of the cases. Cofield claims that the court assumed that because some of his complaints were frivolous therefore all of his complaints were frivolous. The district court, however, gave Cofield notice and a hearing. Moreover, Cofield asserts that the district court never read the...