Hughes v. Miller
| Decision Date | 24 February 2021 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 20-C-1377 |
| Citation | 521 F.Supp.3d 781 |
| Parties | Danny HUGHES and Charlene Jackson, Plaintiffs, v. James MILLER, Felicia Miller, Miller & Miller Law LLC, Paula Brenner, John Scaffidi, Douglas Mann, Margaret McGarity, and John Does, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin |
Danny Hughes, Milwaukee, WI, pro se.
Charlene A. Jackson, Brookfield, WI, pro se.
Luke S. Behnke, SmithAmundsen LLC, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendants James L Miller, Felica Miller, Paula Brenner, Miller and Miller Law LLC.
Kevin M. Fetherston, Terry E. Johnson, von Briesen & Roper, SC, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendants John Scaffidi, Douglas Mann.
Brian E. Pawlak, United States Department of Justice (ED-WI) Office of the US Attorney, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendant Margaret McGarity.
LYNN ADELMAN, United States District Judge For several years now, Danny Hughes and Charlene Jackson, proceeding pro se, have been waging a legal crusade against various participants in Hughes's Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In addition to the bankruptcy proceedings and related appeals, Hughes and Jackson have collectively filed three federal and three state cases involving the bankruptcy. The main targets of these suits have been Hughes's bankruptcy lawyers (attorneys at Miller and Miller Law, LLC), the private bankruptcy trustee assigned to his case (John Scaffidi), and the trustee's lawyer (Douglas Mann). Hughes and Jackson contend that the bankruptcy lawyers committed malpractice, and that the trustee and his counsel somehow violated the law by successfully prosecuting an adversary action in which the bankruptcy court ordered Hughes, Jackson, and others to turn over a tract of land and two dozen vehicles to the bankruptcy estate.
The courts have uniformly rejected each of Hughes's and Jackson's suits at the pleading stage. However, after each suit is dismissed, Hughes and/or Jackson file a related suit alleging the same or nearly the same claims against the same or nearly the same defendants. The present action is Hughes's and Jackson's latest suit. The defendants include three lawyers from the Miller firm, the trustee, and the trustee's lawyer. They also sue the bankruptcy judge who presided over the bankruptcy case, Margaret McGarity, and they seek to amend their complaint to add other participants in the bankruptcy case as defendants. As discussed below, this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ claims, and the suit will be dismissed for that reason. However, because the plaintiffs continue to file frivolous suits involving the bankruptcy, I will make the dismissal with prejudice and enjoin the plaintiffs from commencing new lawsuits against any participant in the bankruptcy case.
In November 2014, Hughes retained the Miller firm to prepare and file a bankruptcy case, and Attorney Paula Brunner1 began preparing the petition. Compl. ¶ 20. On April 14, 2015, Brunner filed a Chapter 7 petition on Hughes's behalf. See Docket of E.D. Wis. Bankr. Case No. 15-23793.2 The Office of the United States Trustee appointed Attorney John M. Scaffidi, a member of the panel of private trustees, to serve as the trustee for the case. As the bankruptcy progressed, Scaffidi discovered a series of suspicious transactions involving dozens of collectable vehicles and land in Germantown, Wisconsin. See ECF No. 12 (bankruptcy case). Scaffidi believed that the land and vehicles might be property of the bankruptcy estate, and he asked the court for permission to hire Attorney Douglas Mann to assist him in investigating these matters. See id. Judge McGarity granted Scaffidi's request to employ Mann for this purpose. See ECF No. 17 (bankruptcy case).
Eventually, the trustee, through Mann, filed an adversary complaint against Hughes, Jackson (who is Hughes's ex-wife), and Hughes's two sons, seeking an order requiring them to turn over assets to the bankruptcy estate. See E.D. Wis. Bankr. Case No. 15-02389 (adversary case). The assets included a 10-acre parcel of real estate in Germantown, Wisconsin, on which stood a pole barn, and thirty collectable vehicles. Title to the real estate was in Jackson's name, and title to some of the vehicles may have been in the name of Hughes's sons. The trustee alleged that Hughes was the true owner of the assets and that any transfers of title to Jackson and Hughes's sons were fraudulent.
At around this time, attorneys from the Miller firm moved to withdraw as Hughes's counsel. They stated that their fee agreement with Hughes limited their engagement to preparing and filing a basic bankruptcy case, and that because the bankruptcy had become complex, they could no longer represent Hughes. They also noted that Hughes had questioned the firm's decisions and that Hughes and his lawyers had irreconcilable differences. See ECF No. 76 (bankruptcy case). The bankruptcy court granted the motion to withdraw on October 9, 2015. See ECF No. 120 (bankruptcy case).
The bankruptcy court held an evidentiary hearing on the adversary complaint in November 2015, at which Hughes, Jackson, and Hughes's sons testified. See ECF No. 36 (adversary case). After the hearing, the bankruptcy court, through Judge McGarity, voided the transfers of the land and vehicles to Jackson and to Hughes's sons and deemed them property of the bankruptcy estate. On January 8, 2016, the court ordered the parties to turn title to the assets over to the trustee and warned that it would seek assistance from the U.S. Marshals service, if necessary, to implement the order. See ECF No. 52 (adversary case). In Spring 2016, the trustee sold the vehicles and land at an auction authorized by the bankruptcy court. See ECF Nos. 270, 339 & 347 (bankruptcy case).
On May 4, 2016, Hughes filed a pro se complaint in this court against attorneys with the Miller firm. See E.D. Wis. Case No. 16-C-0541. The complaint sought either the return of the land and vehicles sold during the bankruptcy case or $850,000 in damages. The court construed the complaint as alleging claims for breach of contract and/or legal malpractice. Because such claims arose under state law and the parties were not completely diverse, the court dismissed the complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The court entered the order dismissing the complaint on May 5, 2016, and judgment was entered on June 6, 2016.
On May 16, 2016, Hughes filed a pro se complaint in the circuit court for Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, against James Miller, Paula Brunner, and the Office of the United States Trustee. See Milwaukee County Cir. Ct. Case No. 16cv3727. The complaint purported to allege claims for breach of contract and legal malpractice against Miller and Brunner, and it contained no allegations concerning the Office of the United States Trustee. See Aff. of Luke Behnke Ex. A. Because the complaint purported to state a claim against an agency of the United States (the Trustee's Office), the United States removed the case to this court, where it was assigned to me. I determined that the plaintiff's claim against the Trustee's Office did not fall within a waiver of the United States’ sovereign immunity and dismissed that agency from the case. I then remanded the state-law claims against Miller and Brunner to the Milwaukee County court. A judgment to that effect was entered on January 25, 2017. When the case returned to state court, Miller and Brunner filed a motion to dismiss the claims against them on the merits. The circuit court granted that motion and dismissed the case with prejudice in an order dated June 26, 2017. See Behnke Aff. Ex. E.
On December 18, 2019, Charlene Jackson filed a pro se complaint in this court against Judge McGarity, Douglas Mann, and the State of Wisconsin. See E.D. Wis. Case No. 19-C-1858. She alleged that the bankruptcy court's order requiring her to turn the land and vehicles over to the bankruptcy estate violated her constitutional rights and amounted to civil theft under state law. She sought the return of the land and vehicles or their replacement value. On January 14, 2020, this court, through Judge J.P. Stadtmueller, issued an order dismissing the case for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted. The court reasoned that Jackson's claims amounted to a collateral attack on the bankruptcy court's order that had to be rejected under the doctrine of claim preclusion (also known as res judicata ).
On January 24, 2020, only a few days after the dismissal of Jackson's federal complaint, both she and Hughes commenced separate pro se cases in the Milwaukee County circuit court against Miller, Brunner, and a third attorney with the Miller firm, Felicia Miller. See Milwaukee County Cir. Ct. Case Nos. 20cv653 & 20cv654. The complaints again challenged the outcome of the adversary proceeding in Hughes's bankruptcy and purported to allege claims for negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. See Behnke Aff. Exs. F & G. In each case, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss, and the judge assigned to each case entered an order dismissing it on the merits. See id. Exs. H & I. The dismissal orders were entered in July and August of 2020.
Finally, on September 4, 2020, Hughes and Jackson filed their pro se complaint in the present action. As noted, they sue the Miller firm, three of its attorneys, the bankruptcy trustee, the trustee's lawyer, and the bankruptcy judge.3 Once again, Hughes and Jackson challenge the outcome of the adversary proceeding and seek compensation for the land and vehicles that were sold during the administration of Hughes's bankruptcy case. The complaint purports to allege claims for "civil conspiracy, gross negligence, negligent supervision, and negligent infliction of emotional distress." Compl. ¶ 2. The complaint's factual allegations mostly summarize the events that occurred in the bankruptcy court and accuse the Miller attorneys of making various mistakes. The complaint's allegations against the trustee and his lawyer...
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Sharif v. Fox
...for their quasi-judicial conduct.”). This immunity also applies to a trustee's counsel. Henry, 808 F.2d at 1238; Hughes v. Miller, 521 F.Supp.3d 781, 789 (W.D. Wis. 2021). Despite Sharif's repeated claims to the contrary, there is nothing in the amended complaint to indicate Fox or his coun......