Luedtke v. Gudmanson

• Decision Date: 22 July 1997
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 96-C-0590.
• Citation: 971 F.Supp. 1263
• Parties: James D. LUEDTKE, Plaintiff, v. Donald GUDMANSON, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin

971 F.Supp. 1263

James D. LUEDTKE, Plaintiff, v. Donald GUDMANSON, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 96-C-0590.

United States District Court, E.D. Wisconsin.

July 22, 1997.

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James D. Luedtke, Oshkosh Correctional Institution, Oshkosh, WI, pro se.

Charles D. Hoornstra, Asst. Atty. Gen., Madison, WI, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

REYNOLDS, District Judge.

The plaintiff, a prisoner at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution ("OCSCI") who is proceeding pro se filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that his civil rights were violated. This matter comes before the court on the plaintiff's petition to proceed in forma pauperis.

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1), enacted on April 26, 1996, the plaintiff is required to pay the statutory filing fee of $150.00 for this action. If a prisoner does not have the money to pay the filing fee, he or she can request leave to proceed in forma pauperis. To proceed with an action in forma pauperis, the prisoner must complete a petition and affidavit to proceed in forma pauperis and return it to the court with a certified copy of the prisoner's trust account statement showing transactions for the prior six months. The court then assesses and, when funds exist, collects from the plaintiff at the time the action is filed an initial partial filing fee of 20% of the average monthly deposits to or the average monthly balance in the prisoner's trust account for the six-month period immediately preceding the filing of the complaint. Thereafter, partial filing fee payments must be collected until the plaintiff has paid the full filing fee of $150.00.

This provision is mean-spirited and unnecessary. In forma pauperis is fundamental to our nation's beliefs that justice is blind; that money is no prerequisite to access to the courts; that a litigant's claim — not his social status — determines how his cause will fare in the courts. To require prisoners to pay some sort of filing fee while non-prisoner indigents pay nothing undermines these vital principles. This departure from traditional docket controls is made more draconian by the "three strikes" aspect of 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g) under which, after having had three actions dismissed, a prisoner forfeits his right to bring suit or appeal a judgment unless he can make a showing of "imminent danger of serious physical injury." Finally, this new legislation forgets that in forma pauperis litigation has historically been a vital source of law — enforcing, defining, and upholding the basic freedoms that define our nation.

Certainly, many believe prisoner suits are out-of-control, and that this provision is a necessary response. Without it, the argument goes, prisoners have no incentive to refrain from bringing silly claims. No doubt some prisoners, do bring claims wholly without merit, as do other litigants. Identifying a problem, however, does not in and of itself justify any solution, no matter how impractical, unjust, and counterproductive.

On one hand, the filing fee is unlikely to have a significant impact on prisoner litigation because the fee is collected in minimal installments. On the other hand, the administrative costs involved are likely to well exceed any benefit either the courts, the taxpayers, or the prisons may incur. For example, the costs of administering the ongoing financial relationship between the clerk's office and the prisoner litigant, in terms of postage, record-keeping, and accounting, will be substantial.

Congress has passed a law that is unlikely to achieve its stated goals, costs the supposed beneficiaries more than it benefits them, and is a departure from the nation's traditional view of justice. Nevertheless, the court is bound to follow the law, no matter how ineffective, mean-spirited, or unjust.

In this case, the plaintiff has filed a certified copy of his prison trust account statement for the six-month period immediately preceding the filing of his complaint. The prisoner has been assessed and paid an initial partial filing fee of $5.04. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(4).

The court is required to screen complaints brought by prisoners seeking relief against a governmental entity or officer or employee of a governmental entity. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). The court must dismiss a complaint or portion thereof if the prisoner has raised claims that are legally "frivolous or malicious", that fail to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1) & (2).

A claim is legally frivolous when it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact. Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 31, 112 S.Ct. 1728, 1732-33, 118 L.Ed.2d 340 (1992); Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 1831-32, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989). The court may, therefore, dismiss a claim as frivolous where it is based on an indisputably meritless legal theory or where the factual contentions are clearly baseless. Neitzke, 490 U.S. at 327, 109 S.Ct. at 1832-33.

A complaint, or portion thereof, should be dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted if it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of the claim or claims that would entitle him to relief. See Hishon v. King & Spalding, 467 U.S. 69, 73, 104 S.Ct. 2229, 2232-33, 81 L.Ed.2d 59 (1984) (citing Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 101-102, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 [1957]). In reviewing a complaint under this standard, the court must accept as true the allegations of the complaint in question, Hospital Bldg. Co. v. Trustees of the Rex Hospital, 425 U.S. 738, 740, 96 S.Ct. 1848, 1850, 48 L.Ed.2d 338 (1976), construe the pleading in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and resolve all doubts in the plaintiff's favor. Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U.S. 411, 421, 89 S.Ct. 1843, 1848, 23 L.Ed.2d 404 (1969).

To state a claim for relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiffs must allege: 1) that they were deprived of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and 2) that the deprivation was visited upon them by a person acting under color of state law. Gomez v. Toledo, 446 U.S. 635, 640, 100 S.Ct. 1920, 1923-24, 64 L.Ed.2d 572 (1980). The court is obliged to give the plaintiff's pro se allegations, however inartfully pleaded, a liberal construction. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 595-96, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972).

Plaintiff's Claims

The plaintiff's complaint contains twelve counts, and the only named defendant is OSCI Warden Gudmanson. A review of the complaint discloses that a majority of the plaintiff's claims do not allege that Warden Gudmanson was personally involved in any of the alleged violations. In fact, the plaintiff's claims are mainly against other prison officials at OSCI. The court is obliged to give plaintiff's pro se allegations, however inartfully pleaded, a liberal construction. See, Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 595-96, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972). Therefore, in giving the plaintiff's complaint a liberal construction, the court will infer that the plaintiff meant to include the prison officials referred to in the complaint as named defendants in this action. However, even with this allowance, many of the plaintiff's claims lack the necessary specificity and are merely conclusory.

Although a plaintiff need not always plead facts, and may plead conclusions, these conclusions must provide at least some minimum notice of the claim. Jackson v. Marion County, 66 F.3d 151, 153 (1995). A complaint must also have some minimum reasonable basis in law or fact, particularly when the plaintiff is seeking leave of the court to proceed in forma pauperis. Persons should not be allowed to proceed in forma pauperis if their complaints are so lacking in specific facts that the court must invent factual scenarios which cannot be inferred from the pleadings. See, Smith-Bey v. Hospital Administrator, 841 F.2d 751, 758 (7th Cir. 1988).

Additionally, in order to assert a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against a party, a plaintiff must allege some personal participation or involvement by that party in the alleged constitutional violation. See, Duckworth v. Franzen, 780 F.2d 645 (7th Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 816, 107 S.Ct. 71, 93 L.Ed.2d 28 (1986). To establish liability under § 1983, a plaintiff must therefore allege that a defendant was in some way personally responsible for the alleged deprivations, and that the deprivations occurred with the knowledge and consent of that defendant. See, Smith v. Rowe, 761 F.2d 360 (7th Cir. 1985). At the in forma pauperis stage, this personal involvement may either be stated specifically in the complaint or inferred from the surrounding circumstances. See, Williams v. Faulkner, 837 F.2d 304 (7th Cir.1988), aff'd sub nom., Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989). A plaintiff must identify the particular persons responsible for each of the claims he makes, or explain his failure to do so.

In count 1, the plaintiff alleges that he has not been given any vocational training at OSCI. Prisoners have no liberty interest in receiving vocational training because a lack of vocational training in prison does not impose an atypical and significant hardship on the plaintiff in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life. See, Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 485-86, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 2301, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995).

The plaintiff also claims in this count that he has been denied vocational training as punishment for filing complaints at OSCI. An act taken in retaliation for the exercise of a constitutionally protected right may give rise to a claim under § 1983. Rakovich v. Wade, 850 F.2d 1180 (7^th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 968, 109 S.Ct. 497, 102 L.Ed.2d 534 (1988). However, the plaintiff does not assert facts with enough specificity to...