McHenry v. Renne, 94-15179

Citation84 F.3d 1172
Decision Date28 May 1996
Docket NumberNo. 94-15179,94-15179
Parties, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3749, 96 Daily Journal D.A.R. 6102 Keith McHENRY; Eric Warren, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Louise RENNE; John Willett; Charles Gallman; Frank Reed; Mary Burns; Timothy Hettrich; (Fnu) Blackwell; Edward Garcia; Mark Hernandez; Robert Battaglia; Robert J. Brodnik; S. Quadrelli; R. Farris, # 12212; John Does 1-10; Dirk Beijen; Richard Hongisto; Russell Matli # 1751 and the City and County of San Francisco, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Randy Baker, Berkeley, California, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Margaret W. Baumgartner, Deputy City Attorney, San Francisco, California, for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Vaughn R. Walker, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-92-01154-VRW.

Before: GOODWIN, FARRIS and KLEINFELD, Circuit Judges.

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge:

The district judge dismissed plaintiffs' complaint under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8, 12, and 41 because it did not contain a short and plain statement of their claims for relief, did not give defendants a fair opportunity to frame a responsive pleading, and did not give the court a clear statement of claims. The district court had given plaintiffs three opportunities to amend the complaint in accord with the judge's instructions, but the third amended complaint restated the prior ones without curing their deficiencies. We affirm.

FACTS

We take the facts from plaintiffs' third amended complaint as best we can. Because it is fifty-three pages long, and mixes allegations of relevant facts, irrelevant facts, political argument, and legal argument in a confusing way, we cannot be sure that we have correctly understood all the averments. If we have not, plaintiffs have only themselves to blame.

According to the complaint, plaintiff McHenry made it a practice to give out free food and political literature in city parks. The Mayor, City Attorney, Chief of Police, and other public officials and police officers in San Francisco conspired to harass McHenry with unreasonable arrests on such charges as failure to obtain the permits required to display signs in parks or to distribute food to the public. McHenry alleges that he was physically assaulted by, or at the direction of, various defendants and charged with driving on a suspended license.

The City obtained a preliminary injunction in the California Superior Court prohibiting McHenry from distributing food without the necessary health and park permits. He alleges that the City changed its regulations in bad faith to deny him a permit and that the City's initiation of legal proceedings charging McHenry with contempt for violating the state injunction by distributing food without a permit was in bad faith. The complaint also alleges that plaintiff Warren had been protesting the police treatment of McHenry and suffered a retaliatory arrest as a result.

Plaintiffs initial complaint was thirty-five pages and alleged various causes of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiffs did not serve this complaint, but instead filed an amended complaint dropping Andrea McHenry as a plaintiff and adding various defendants.

The thirty-seven page amended complaint is mostly an extended narrative of the details of the various activities of plaintiff McHenry, and his numerous alleged arrests. At the end of his complaint, plaintiff McHenry purports to set out two counts, one for damages and one for declaratory and injunctive relief. McHenry's claims are set out in a single sentence thirty lines long, alleging numerous and different violations of rights, without any specification of which of the twenty named defendants or John Does is liable for which of the wrongs. Another, similar, paragraph lays out the claims on behalf of plaintiff Warren. The only specificity given is that no punitive damages are sought from the City of San Francisco and no damages are sought from defendant Superior Court of California. This complaint was part of a long history of complaints against the City and County of San Francisco and its employees, from elected officials to gardeners, claiming that each arrest of McHenry was part of a broad conspiracy to interfere with his constitutional rights.

The City moved to dismiss for failure to comply with Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8(a) and 12(e). It moved to dismiss some of the apparent claims on the basis of the statute of limitations, absolute and qualified immunity, collateral estoppel, and the State Tort Claims Act.

The district judge wrote a thorough and careful order dismissing this first amended complaint without prejudice. The court particularly noted the impossibility of figuring out which defendants were allegedly liable for which wrongs, and noted the obvious bars to a number of the apparent claims:

Plaintiffs have made sweeping allegations against the city and various government employees, but the complaint frequently does not make clear connections between specific allegations and individual defendants. Defendants charge that the vague wording of the complaint makes it excessively difficult for individual defendants to formulate proper defenses and subject the city and others to unnecessary discovery.

...

* * *

Plaintiffs complaint does provide specific allegations of fact to support the claim that defendants have intentionally deprived plaintiffs of their constitutional rights. Nevertheless, as the complaint stands now it does not properly notify individual defendants of the allegations with which they are charged. Given the number and diversity of named defendants and the breadth of the allegations, claims which vaguely refer to "defendants" or "other responsible authorities" will not suffice. Defendants' motion for a more definite statement pursuant to F.R.C.P. 12(e), is granted, and plaintiffs are ordered to file a second amended complaint which clearly and concisely explains which allegations are relevant to which defendants.

...

* * *

Many of the named defendants may be able to assert absolute or qualified immunity as a defense, but unfortunately plaintiffs' complaint does not provide enough detail for the court to determine the appropriateness of these defenses at this time. For this reason, defendants' motion to dismiss on the immunity grounds is denied without prejudice. Defendants may refile the motion once plaintiffs have submitted a second amended complaint.

The court also ordered plaintiffs to show cause why defendants not served within 120 days should not be dismissed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(j). Subsequently, the court dismissed the claims against those defendants where plaintiffs had not shown any substantial reasons for late service, but denied the motions to dismiss where plaintiffs had shown good cause for the delay.

Plaintiffs then filed a second amended complaint, which contained identically argumentative and prolix allegations, but added a section at the end in which the conduct attributed to each defendant was outlined. The complaint was now forty-three pages. The section naming particular defendants linked them up with parts of the narrative, but still did not tell them of what constitutional torts they were accused.

The court again dismissed without prejudice. The district judge wrote another careful order, this time giving plaintiffs specific instructions on how to rewrite their complaint so that it could be adjudicated:

In its order of October 8, 1992, this court dismissed plaintiff's first amended complaint without prejudice because it failed to provide the individual defendants with proper notice of the claims being asserted against them and, as such, did not afford defendants a fair opportunity to assert immunity defenses. Plaintiffs response to this order, the second amended complaint, largely mirrors the narrative ramblings of the first amended complaint except that it also includes a section entitled "Summary of Allegations Against Individual Defendants." Plaintiffs contend that this section of their otherwise deficient complaint ameliorates any problems which defendants may have had in formulating qualified immunity defenses. Defendants have now moved to dismiss the second amended complaint, reasserting the argument that the complaint is too vague to enable defendants to frame a responsive pleading, FRCP 12(e), and alternatively submitting that all of the individual defendants are Plaintiff's complaint fails to comply with the court's directive to explain clearly how each defendant is implicated by plaintiffs' allegations. For no apparent reason and though they are represented by counsel, plaintiffs have consistently eschewed the traditional pleading style which prescribes a "short and plain statement" of basic allegations followed by an outline of each legal claim based on specific allegations of fact. Instead, plaintiffs have re-submitted their complaint in its original novelized form, with only their new "Summary" directed at delineating their allegations. While plaintiffs' "Summary" does attempt to link plaintiffs' fact allegations to specific defendants, it does nothing to inform defendants of the legal claims being asserted. In wholly inadequate fashion, plaintiffs present their legal claims in a mere two paragraphs in the form of an undifferentiated list near the end of the forty-three page complaint. See Second Amended Complaint, pp 94 and 104.

entitled to qualified or absolute immunity from plaintiffs' claims.

Because plaintiffs' second amended complaint still does not provide defendants with a fair opportunity to frame a responsive pleading, defendants' motion to dismiss pursuant to FRCP 12(e) is GRANTED. Plaintiffs shall have one last opportunity to file a proper complaint which states clearly how each and every defendant is alleged to have violated plainti...

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