Keen v. U.S. Gov't Agency Dea
Decision Date | 30 January 2018 |
Docket Number | 1:17-cv-06156-NLH-JS |
Parties | JARED LOUIS KEEN, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AGENCY DEA, CIA, FBI, HOMELAND SECURITY, CITY OF CASA GRANDE, et al., Defendants. |
Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey |
JARED LOUIS KEEN
307 MCCLELLAN RD.
EGG HARBOR TWP., NJ 08234
Appearing pro se
THOMAS M. KELLY
STEVEN J. WIEDERHORN
FAUST, GOETZ, SCHENKER & BLEE
570 WEST MOUNT PLEASANT AVENUE
LIVINGSTON, NJ 07039
On behalf of Defendant City of Casa Grande
WHEREAS, Plaintiff, Jared Louis Keen, appearing pro se, has filed a complaint against several United States Government agencies, the City of Tucson, the City of Casa Grande, Florence Federal Penitentiary, the United States Government, President Donald J. Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Judge Nancy Hodges, and Court Clerk William T. Walsh; and
WHEREAS, Plaintiff's handwritten complaint is mostly unintelligible, but from what the Court can decipher, it appears that Plaintiff claims that his First and Thirteenth Amendment rights were violated in late 2016 and early 2017 in Casa Grande, Arizona when he was detained at gunpoint by seven officers for going into the wrong door of a building, and then detained in the Florence correctional facility for several hours without food and water or any charges being brought against him, and his car was illegally towed; and
WHEREAS, Defendant City of Casa Grande has filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiff's complaint for improper service,1 failure to state a claim, and improper venue (Docket No. 8); and
WHEREAS, in response to Casa Grande's motion, Plaintiff filed an amended complaint, which does not contain any claims against Casa Grande, or the City of Tucson or Florence Federal Penitentiary (Docket No. 11);2 and WHEREAS, pro se complaints must be construed liberally, and all reasonable latitude must be afforded the pro se litigant, Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 107 (1976), but pro se litigants "must still plead the essential elements of [their] claim and [are] not excused from conforming to the standard rules of civil procedure," see McNeil v. United States, 508 U.S. 106, 113 (1993) (); Sykes v. Blockbuster Video, 205 F. App'x 961, 963 (3d Cir. 2006) ( ); and
WHEREAS, because Plaintiff's amended complaint does not name Casa Grande, the City of Tucson, and the Florence Federal Penitentiary or contain any claims against them, and because the amended complaint is now the operative pleading, see Snyder v. Pascack Valley Hospital, 303 F.3d 271, 276 (3d Cir. 2002) ( ), the amended complaint evidences Plaintiff's intent to relinquish his claims against these three defendants3; and WHEREAS, the Court will therefore dismiss those three Defendants from the action,4 and deny as moot Casa Grande's motion to dismiss; and
WHEREAS, with regard to the content of Plaintiff's amended complaint, the Court finds that in addition to it being almost as unintelligible as his original complaint, Plaintiff's amended complaint is deficient because:
1. Plaintiff has failed to state this Court's subject matter jurisdiction over his action, whether it is based on a federal question, or whether it is based on diversity of citizenship and an amount in controversy in excess of $75,000, see 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1332;
2. Plaintiff has failed to state a specific legal basis for his claims - he requests the return of his $400 filing fee and damages in the amount of $420,000 because, as best the Court can tell, he was not provided with a paralegal to assist him, he was not provided a hearing date, and he was not permitted to speak to the Clerk of the Court - but he fails to specify whether his claims sound, for example, in contract or tort, and he also fails to specify what laws Defendants allegedly violated, which is necessary to establish subject matter jurisdiction, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a) (); see also Zambelli Fireworks Mfg. Co. v. Wood, 592 F.3d 412, 418 (3d Cir. 2010) ( ); and
3. On that same basis, Plaintiff's amended complaint fails to comply with Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a), and the pleading standards required by Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 563 (2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 684 (2009) ( );
THEREFORE,
IT IS on this 30th day of January, 2018
ORDERED that Plaintiff's claims against the City of Casa Grande, the City of Tucson, and Florence Federal Penitentiary are DISMISSED; and it is further
ORDERED that the MOTION to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction by CITY OF CASA GRANDE [8] be, and the same hereby is, DENIED AS MOOT; and it is further
ORDERED that the action against the remaining defendants is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE in its entirety; within 20 days from the date this Order is entered, Plaintiff may move to reopen his case, attaching to any such motion a proposed second amended complaint5 which addresses the deficiencies of the original and amended complaint as described herein; and it is further
ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court shall mark this case CLOSED.
s/ Noel L. Hillman
1. It does not appear from the docket that service of process has been effected on any defendant.
2. Plaintiff was permitted to file an amended complaint without leave of Court pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(1)(B), which provides, "A party may amend its pleading once as a matter of course within: (A) 21 days after serving it, or (B) if the pleading is one to which a responsive pleading is required, 21 days after service of a responsive pleading or 21 days after service of a motion under Rule 12(b), (e), or (f), whichever is earlier."
3. The Court could also construe Plaintiff's amended complaint to constitute notice under Federal Civil Procedure Rule 41(a)(1)(i) that Plaintiff dismisses his claims against Casa Grande, the City of Tucson, and Florence Federal Penitentiary. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(i) (...
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