Kungle v. State Farm, Fire & Cas. Co.
| Decision Date | 16 June 2014 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 13–1338 RBW |
| Parties | Arthur Kungle, Jr., Plaintiff, v. State Farm, Fire and Casualty Company,Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
Arthur Kungle, Jr., Annapolis, MD, pro se.
Michael Jack Budow, Budow & Noble, P.C., Bethesda, MD, for Defendant.
The pro se plaintiff, Arthur Kungle, Jr., brings this action against his insurance provider, State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (“State Farm”), and appears to allege that State Farm's failure to pay his insurance claim violates 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1986 (2012). See generally ECF No. 1; ECF No. 9; ECF No. 10.2 The plaintiff additionally alleges that State Farm committed criminal mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (2012).3 See ECF No. 1 at 1. He seeks an award of $200,000 under his State Farm insurance policy, id. at 4 as well as an unintelligible sum for fraud to be awarded to the Adult Recovery Center of the Salvation Army in Baltimore, Maryland, the Methodist Board of Child Care, and the St. Mary's Roman Catholic Schools,4 id. at 4. Currently before the Court are two of the plaintiff's filings, which the Court has construed collectively as a motion to amend his complaint, ECF No. 9; ECF No. 10, Defendant State Farm's Motion to Dismiss for Improper Venue or, in the Alternative to Transfer Venue, or to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim Upon Which Relief May be Granted (“Def.'s Mot.”) and Defendant State Farm's Motion to Strike Docket Entries 9 and 10 (“Def.'s Mot. to Strike”). After carefully considering the parties' submissions,5 the Court concludes for the reasons below that it must grant the plaintiff's pending motions to amend, deny State Farm's motion to strike, and grant State Farm's motion to dismiss.
The following factual allegations are taken from a number of filings submitted by the plaintiff to this Court which have been collectively construed as the plaintiff's complaint.6 Although the filings are generally unintelligible, the Court has been able to discern the following series of events, which, for the purposes of this Opinion, the Court must accept as true.
The “[p]laintiff has a homeowner's policy with State Farm Insurance,” ECF No. 24 at 1, with “personal property limits [in the amount] of $249,200,” ECF No. 1 at 2. “Policy [number] 20–CT–9547–8 [] 8 Gentry Court, Annapolis, [Maryland,] 21403.” Id. At some point in time, there was, as characterized by the plaintiff, a “heist[, presumably a theft,] at [his] abode,” during which personal property was taken. Id. at 3. After the “heist,” the plaintiff filed an insurance claim for $220,000 with State Farm. Id.
“[State Farm] demanded that [the] plaintiff produce photos or other records,” of the property for which he was seeking reimbursement. Id. at 2. The plaintiff asserts, however, that the request “was false [and] fraudulent” because State Farm agents “took pictures after each heist,” id., and that he provided State Farm with “records from Trover bookstore ... [and] other info [rmation] from 105 different stores around the world.” Id. The plaintiff further alleges that representatives of State Farm “met with counsel [and] were given receipts for book purchases [at] Trover [and] other bookstores.”7 ECF No. 24 at 1. This meeting took place “in the office of [the plaintiff's] then counselor, Tom Hennessy,” in Annapolis, Maryland, ECF No. 29–1 at 1. The plaintiff further alleges that State Farm “lost or destroyed [this] evidence.” ECF No. 1 at 3.
On November 11, 2013, this Court granted the plaintiff leave to file two additional filings which the Court construed as motions to amend his complaint to include allegations that because he “is maternally descended from both the Creek [and] Powhattan,”8 State Farm “does not want to pay [him for his claim] due to [its] historic racial bias.” ECF No. 9 at 1. He further alleges that “[s]enior State Farm folks knew [that] lower staff conspired to deny [him] payments [and] federal civil rights,” and that State Farm “violated federal mail fraud laws by demanding photos of lost stuff [and] records.” ECF No. 10 at 1. State Farm has now moved to strike these amended filings, to dismiss the plaintiff's complaint for improper venue or, in the alternative, to transfer venue, or to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. See generally Def.'s Mot. to Strike; Def.'s Mot.
The pleadings of pro se parties are to be “liberally construed, and a pro se complaint, however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.” Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007) (per curiam) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). However, even though a pro se complaint must be construed liberally, the complaint must still “present a claim on which the Court can grant relief.” Chandler v. Roche, 215 F.Supp.2d 166, 168 (D.D.C.2002) (citing Crisafi v. Holland, 655 F.2d 1305, 1308 (D.C.Cir.1981) ).
In considering a motion to dismiss for lack of proper venue under Rule 12(b)(3), “the Court accepts the plaintiff['s] well-pled factual allegations regarding venue as true, draws all reasonable inferences from those allegations in the plaintiff['s] favor, and ... resolves any factual conflicts in the plaintiff['s] favor.” Quarles v. Gen. Inv. & Dev. Co., 260 F.Supp.2d 1, 8 (D.D.C.2003) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); see also 2215 Fifth St. Assocs. v. U–Haul Int'l, Inc., 148 F.Supp.2d 50, 54 (D.D.C.2001) () (citation omitted). “Because it is the plaintiff's obligation to institute the action in a permissible forum, the plaintiff usually bears the burden of establishing that venue is proper.” Freeman v. Fallin, 254 F.Supp.2d 52, 56 (D.D.C.2003) (citations omitted).
A Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) motion tests whether the complaint “state[s] a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). “To survive a motion to dismiss [under Rule 12(b)(6) ], a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ). A claim is facially plausible “when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw [a] reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id. (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ). While the Court must “assume [the] veracity” of any “well-pleaded factual allegations” in the complaint, conclusory allegations “are not entitled to the assumption of truth.” Id. at 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937.
“ ‘In determining whether a complaint states a claim, the court may consider the facts alleged in the complaint, documents attached thereto or incorporated therein, and matters of which it may take judicial notice.’ ” Abhe & Svoboda, Inc. v. Chao, 508 F.3d 1052, 1059 (D.C.Cir.2007) (citation omitted). And among the documents “subject to judicial notice on a motion to dismiss” are “public records,” Kaempe v. Myers, 367 F.3d 958, 965 (D.C.Cir.2004), which includes records from other court proceedings, Covad Commc'ns Co. v. Bell Atl. Corp., 407 F.3d 1220, 1222 (D.C.Cir.2005).
On November 11, 2013, this Court granted the plaintiff leave to file two submissions, construing them as amendments to his original complaint. See generally ECF No. 9; ECF No. 10. Five days after leave to file was granted, State Farm simultaneously filed its motion to dismiss and motion to strike ECF entries 9 and 10. See generally Def.'s Mot.; Def.'s Mot. to Strike.
“A party may amend its pleading once as a matter of course” before the adverse party has filed a responsive pleading. Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a). “In all other cases, a party may amend its pleading only with the opposing party's written consent or the court's leave.” Id. While the Court has sole discretion to grant or deny leave to amend, absent a sufficient reason to deny an amendment request, “[l]eave to amend a complaint should be freely given in the absence of undue delay, bad faith, undue prejudice to the opposing party, repeated failure to cure deficiencies, or futility.” Richardson v. United States, 193 F.3d 545, 548–49 (D.C.Cir.1999) (citing Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962) ). The rationale for this perspective is that “[i]f the underlying facts or circumstances relied upon by a plaintiff may be a proper subject of relief, he ought to be afforded an opportunity to test his claim on the merits.”Foman, 371 U.S. at 182, 83 S.Ct. 227.
Here, as was his right, the plaintiff filed his amended complaint prior to State Farm's response to the original complaint and therefore, there is no “undue prejudice to the opposing party.” Richardson, 193 F.3d at 548–49. Moreover, because State Farm responded to the allegations set forth in the amended complaint by way of its motion to strike, which it incorporated as part of its motion to dismiss, see Def.'s Mot. to Strike at ¶ 1, and because the Court considered the arguments in State Farm's motion to strike in conjunction with its motion to dismiss, the plaintiff's motions to amend his complaint via ECF 9 and 10 are granted and State Farm's motion to strike is denied. The allegations made in those filings will therefore be incorporated into the plaintiff's claim and the Court will therefore consider the claims, facts, and allegations asserted in those filings...
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