Watson v. Ault
| Decision Date | 12 January 1976 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 75--1683,s. 75--1683 |
| Citation | 525 F.2d 886 |
| Parties | James A. WATSON et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Dr. Allen L. AULT et al., Defendants-Appellees. William PURDUE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Dr. Allen L. AULT, Director, et al., Defendants-Appellees. William A. DURHAM, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Oree THOMPSON et al., Defendants-Appellees. to 75--1685. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Page 886
v.
Dr. Allen L. AULT et al., Defendants-Appellees.
William PURDUE, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Dr. Allen L. AULT, Director, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
William A. DURHAM, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Oree THOMPSON et al., Defendants-Appellees.
Fifth Circuit.
Page 888
Jerry Patterson, Jackson, Ga., Alfred C. Aman, Atlanta, Ga. (Court-appointed), for plaintiffs-appellants in all cases.
Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Lois F. Oakley, G. Thomas Davis, Asst. Attys. Gen., Richard L. Chambers, Deputy Atty. Gen., Atlanta, Ga., for defendants-appellees in all cases.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Before BELL, THORNBERRY and MORGAN, Circuit Judges.
BELL, Circuit Judge:
These appeals, consolidated for opinion purposes, are from orders of the district court denying the right to proceed in forma pauperis and dismissing as frivolous, pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 1915(d), three separate pro se prisoner complaints asserted under the Civil Rights Act. 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983. Given notice pleading concepts and the extant authorities on administering in forma pauperis appeals under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1915, we hold that the dismissals were premature. Accordingly, we vacate and remand for further proceedings.
I.
The appellants are all state prisoners in the custody of the Georgia State Board of Corrections, confined at either the Reidsville State Prison or the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center at Jackson. The factual claims underlying their individual causes of action and the individual and collective actions of the district court with respect to the three petitions will first be summarized.
No. 75--1683
In No. 75--1683, petitioners Watson and Patterson filed a complaint on February 20, 1975, in the Middle District of Georgia alleging a cause of action under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983. They sought damages and equitable relief against Dr. Allen Ault, Director of the Georgia State Board of Corrections, and against Dr. James E. Ricketts, Warden of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center. The basis for the complaint was that their constitutional rights had been violated by the denial of procedural due process in a transfer to solitary confinement, by subjection to allegedly inhumane conditions in the prison, and by unwilling participation in a prisoner behavior modification program. To the complaint was attached an affidavit requesting leave to proceed in forma pauperis.
No. 75--1684
In No. 75--1684, appellant Purdue filed a complaint on February 7, 1975, based on the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, similarly petitioning the court to proceed in forma pauperis. The defendants in his suit were also Doctors Ault and Ricketts. The complaint alleged comparable violations of constitutional rights stemming from allegedly unbearable living conditions at the prison, and from a transfer to apparently punitive confinement without being accorded procedural due process. Appellant Purdue also attached an affidavit requesting leave to proceed in forma pauperis.
No. 75--1685
In No. 75--1685, appellant Durham originally filed his complaint in the Southern District of Georgia against various persons alleged to have violated his constitutional rights in the investigation and prosecution of the crime for which he had been imprisoned. These violations included a lack of probable cause for his arrest, an appearance in a lineup without counsel, a failure to arraign him for seventeen days after arrest, coercion into signing an involuntary confession, and an assertion that his guilty plea was involuntary. Although the nature of the asserted wrongs were such as normally
Page 889
support a writ of habeas corpus, he sought damages rather than release. The court therefore did not require exhaustion of state remedies and allowed the complaint to be filed in the Southern District. Because all the parties except Durham were residents of a county in the Middle District of Georgia, the court transferred the case to that district under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1404. Appellant Durham had also included an affidavit in forma pauperis, which was not ruled upon by the district court in the Southern District. All pleadings in the case were transferred to the Middle District of Georgia on November 22, 1974.The Actions of the District Court
The order of the district court dismissing each complaint as frivolous under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1915(d) was essentially the same in each case, and is reproduced in the margin. 1 The apparent basis for the district court's dismissal was the lack of additional facts to support whatever claim had been presented in the original complaints, as evidenced by the failure or refusal of appellants to respond to a court questionnaire intended to develop facts. Having found the complaints to be frivolous, the district court ordered that the three complaints be filed for record purposes only and otherwise dismissed them on the day that each complaint was so filed.
All of the petitioners filed notice of appeal, requesting leave to appeal...
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Holsey v. Bass
... ... at 133. Thus, one court has stated that a pauper's affidavit is not a broad highway into the federal courts. Jones v. Ault, 67 F.R.D. 124, 127 (S.D.Ga.), aff'd without opinion, 516 F.2d 898 (5 Cir. 1974) ... Pro se complaints are to be liberally ... The Taylor court, 529 F.2d at 717 n.12, cited Watson v. Ault, 525 F.2d 886 (5 Cir. 1976). In Watson, as in Daye and Taylor, the court distinguished between complaints presenting factual issues ... ...
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State Prisoners, Federal Courts, and Playing by the Rules: an Analysis of the Aldisert Committee's Recommended Procedures for Handling Prisoner Civil Rights Cases
...F.2d 709, 717 (5th Cir. 1976); Covington v. Cole, 528 F.2d 1365, 1372-73, rehearing denied, 533 F.2d 1135 (5th Cir. 1976); Watson v. Ault, 525 F.2d 886, 891-98 (5th Cir. 1976) (reprint of form); Hardwick v. Ault, 517 F.2d 295, 298 (5th Cir. 1975); Zaragoza v. City of San Antonio, 464 F. Sup......