Mitchell v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.

• Decision Date: 19 June 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-10034.,01-10034.
• Citation: 294 F.3d 1309
• Parties: William MITCHELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CORPORATION, Liggett Group Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

294 F.3d 1309

William MITCHELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CORPORATION, Liggett Group Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 01-10034.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

June 19, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Paul David Brown, Mobile, AL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Archibald Thomas Reeves, IV, Edward S. Sledge, III, McDowell, Knight, Roedder & Sledge, L.L.C., Mobile, AL, William H. Brooks, Lightfoot, Franklin & White, James W. Davis, Galloway & Moss, LLC, Bruce F. Rogers, Bainbridge, Mims, Rogers & Smith, LLP, Birmingham, AL, W. Randall Bassett, King & Spalding, Atlanta, GA, Peter Sean Fruin, Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C., Montgomery, AL, Steven R. Selsberg, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, L.L.P., Houston, TX, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.

Before WILSON, RONEY and ALARCÓN^*, Circuit Judges.

ALARCÓN, Circuit Judge:

William Mitchell, a federal prisoner, appeals from the dismissal without prejudice of his pro se action against five cigarette manufacturers. Mitchell filed this action in state court. The defendants removed the action to the district court because the parties were of diverse citizenship and Mitchell prayed for damages in excess of $75,000. The district court adopted the magistrate judge's recommendation that this action be dismissed as frivolous, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i), because it did not sufficiently allege a physical injury as required by 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e), a provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PLRA"). We vacate the judgment because we conclude that § 1997e(e) does not apply to state-law claims unrelated to prison conditions filed by prisoners in state court, and removed to federal court solely on the basis of diversity jurisdiction. We also affirm the district court's denial of Mitchell's motion for a default judgment against Liggett Group, Inc. We further conclude that the district court did not err in striking Mitchell's notice regarding the filing of an amended complaint.

I

On December 27, 1999, Mitchell, a federal prisoner incarcerated in Wisconsin, filed pro se a complaint in the Circuit Court for Escambia County, Alabama against Philip Morris, Inc. ("Philip Morris"), R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. ("R.J.Reynolds"), Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. ("Brown & Williamson"), Liggett Group, Inc. ("Liggett Group"), and Lorillard Tobacco Co. The state court allowed Mitchell to proceed without prepaying docket and services fees. Mitchell alleged claims for deceptive advertising, misrepresentation, and strict liability based solely on Alabama tort law. He based his complaint on the following factual assertions: (1) due to the deceptive advertising of the defendants, he began using and became addicted to their tobacco products in 1987-1988; (2) as a result of his addiction to the defendants' products, he suffers from shortness of breath, headaches, and a fear of dying from cancer in the near future, which includes nightmares about contracting stomach cancer; and (3) he is entitled to actual and general damages of $10 million for his pain, suffering, and emotional distress caused by his fear of dying of cancer, $750,000 in actual damages from each defendant for his nicotine addiction, and $1 million in punitive damages from each defendant for his mental stress and fear.

The defendants removed this matter to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama based on diversity of citizenship, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332. While three of the defendants filed answers to Mitchell's complaint, Liggett Group did not. Mitchell filed a motion for a default judgment against Liggett Group based on its failure to respond to his complaint.

Mitchell's action was referred to a United States magistrate judge, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A).¹ The magistrate judge ordered the parties to show cause why 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e) did not bar Mitchell's complaint. Section 1997e(e) provides: "No Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury." In order to avoid dismissal under § 1997e(e), a prisoner's claims for emotional or mental injury must be accompanied by allegations of physical injuries that are greater than de minimis. Harris v. Garner, 190 F.3d 1279, 1286 (11th Cir.1999) ("Harris I"), vacated in part and reinstated in part on reh'g, 216 F.3d 970 (11th Cir.2000) (en banc) ("Harris II").

Mitchell filed pro se a response to the order to show cause, arguing that § 1997e(e) did not apply because his suit was not a "federal civil action." Brown & Williamson, Philip Morris, and R.J. Reynolds filed a joint response arguing that "federal civil action" as that term is used in § 1997e(e) includes claims that are within the jurisdiction of a federal court. Liggett Group moved for dismissal on the basis that Mitchell's action was barred by § 1997e(e) and adopted Brown & Williamson's response to the order to show cause. Mitchell filed a reply, arguing that even if § 1997e(e) applied to his case, he had sufficiently alleged physical injury in the form of his nicotine addiction.

Brown & Williamson, Philip Morris, and R.J. Reynolds filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings in which they asserted that the complaint should be dismissed because of Mitchell's failure to demonstrate physical injury. Mitchell filed a pleading styled as a "Notice to the Court for filing an Amended Complaint." The district court struck this notice for failure to file a certificate indicating that the defendants had been served as required by Rule 5(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.²

In his report and recommendation, the magistrate judge opined that Mitchell's complaint was due to be screened under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i)³ "because Plaintiff was a prisoner when he filed this action and was allowed to proceed without prepaying the regular filing fee." The magistrate judge recommended that the district court hold that the provision in § 1997e(e) that "[n]o Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner" applies to a civil action filed in state court that is removed to a federal district court. The magistrate judge determined that Mitchell did not meet the physical injury requirement of § 1997e(e) because his "conclusory allegations of headaches, shortness of breath, and nicotine addiction do not present a physical injury that is greater than de minimis." The magistrate judge recommended that the complaint be dismissed without prejudice as frivolous, pursuant to § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i). The magistrate judge also recommended that Mitchell's motion for a default judgment against Liggett Group be denied.

None of the parties filed an objection to the magistrate judge's report and recommendation. The district court adopted the magistrate judge's report and recommendation as the opinion of the court and dismissed the action "without prejudice as frivolous pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i)."

Mitchell timely filed a notice of appeal. Subsequently, Mitchell filed a motion to dismiss his appeal as to Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard. This Court granted Mitchell's motion, leaving only Brown & Williamson and Liggett Group as appellees. This Court also appointed counsel to represent Mitchell on this appeal. We exercise our appellate jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

II

Mitchell contends that this Court must order that this matter be remanded to state court because the district court did not have subject matter jurisdiction over his action. Mitchell maintains that the $75,000 jurisdictional amount required to establish diversity of citizenship jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) has not been demonstrated. Mitchell did not file a motion to remand on this ground in the district court. Nevertheless, we have an independent obligation to determine whether we have jurisdiction. FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 493 U.S. 215, 231, 110 S.Ct. 596, 107 L.Ed.2d 603 (1990); Cuban Am. Bar Ass'n v. Christopher, 43 F.3d 1412, 1422 (11th Cir.1995). Accordingly, we must determine whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over this action.

A district court has subject matter jurisdiction "where the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs, and is between... citizens of different states." 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a). There is no dispute that the parties are diverse. Mitchell is a citizen of Alabama because he maintains that his domicile was Alabama before he was incarcerated in Wisconsin. See Polakoff v. Henderson, 370 F.Supp. 690, 693 (N.D.Ga. 1973), aff'd, 488 F.2d 977 (5th Cir.1974) ("A prisoner does not acquire a new domicile in the place of his imprisonment, but retains the domicile he had prior to incarceration.");⁴ see also Singletary v. Cont'l Ill. Nat'l Bank & Trust Co., 9 F.3d 1236, 1238 (7th Cir.1993) ("It [citizenship] should be the state of which [the prisoner] was a citizen before he was sent to prison unless he plans to live elsewhere when he gets out, in which event it should be that state."). None of the defendants is a citizen of Alabama. Therefore, the only question is whether the $75,000 amount-in-controversy requirement has been met.

As this case was originally filed in state court and removed to federal court by the defendants, the defendants bear the burden of proving that federal subject matter jurisdiction exists. Williams v. Best Buy Co., 269 F.3d 1316, 1319 (11th Cir.2001). As this Court has explained:

In the typical diversity case, plaintiff files suit in federal court against a diverse party for damages exceeding [$75,000]. Such a case will not be dismissed unless it appears to a "legal certainty" that plaintiff's claim is actually for less than the jurisdictional amount. St. Paul Indemnity Co. v. Red Cab Co., 303...