Westley v. Bryant, Civ. No. 14-5002 (PJS/BRT)
| Decision Date | 17 April 2015 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 14-5002 (PJS/BRT) |
| Parties | John Westley, Plaintiff, v. Henry L. Bryant; Minnesota Attorney General Office; Florida Attorney General Office; John Garry; Kathleen L. Gearin; Miami Dade County; James Robert Mann; Mitchell P. Korus; Danielle Mann; Laurel M. Isicoff; Dylan Pukel; Lawrence Allen Schwartz; Beatrice A. Butchko; Jennifer Viciedo Ruiz; Jennifer D. Bailey; Victoria Lynn Platzer; Bayview Loan Servicing LLC; Chicago Title Insurance; Kimberly S. LeCompte; Richard I. Korman; Brad Herman Trushin; Sapient Corporation; Starbucks Corporation; HBA Insurance Inc.; 605 Lincoln Road Office Condominium Association; Rhonda Montoya; Piero Filpi; James Korein; Diane V. Ward; Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland; Harold Rosen; and Stinson Leonard Street, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota |
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
John Westley, 3432 Denmark Ave. #188, St. Paul, MN 55123, pro se Plaintiff.
Kathyrn I. Landrum, Esq., Minnesota Attorney General's Office, counsel for Defendant Minnesota Attorney General Office.
Mark S. Dunn, Esq., Florida Attorney General's Office, and Kathryn I. Landrum, Esq., Minnesota Attorney General's Office, counsel for Defendants Florida Attorney General Office, Lawrence Allen Schwartz, Beatrice A. Butchko, Jennifer D. Bailey, Victoria Lynn Platzer, and Diane V. Ward.
Christopher P. Renz, Esq., and David J. McGee, Esq., Chestnut Cambronne PA, counsel for Defendants Mitchell P. Korus, 605 Lincoln Road Office Condominium Association, and James Korein.
Dylan Pukel, 9240 SW 72nd Street, Suite 114, Miami, FL 33173, pro se Defendant.
Debra Auerbach, Esq., Joseph Valdivia, Esq., and Rachel Beige, Esq., Cole, Scott & Kissane, P.A.; and Kevin J. Short, Esq., counsel for Defendant Jennifer Viciedo Ruiz.
Kelly S. Hadac, Esq., and Christian A. Brandt, Esq., HKM Law Group, counsel for Defendants Bayview Loan Servicing LLC and Kimberly S. LeCompte.
Bradley N. Beisel, Esq., and David J. Krco, Esq., Beisel & Dunlevy, PA, counsel for Defendant Chicago Title Insurance.
Brad Herman Trushin, 12550 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 904, North Miami, FL 33181, pro se Defendant.
Deborah A. Ellingboe, Esq., and Staci L. Perdue, Esq., Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, counsel for Defendant Sapient Corporation.
Susan D. Thurmer, Esq., and Robyn K. Johnson, Esq., Cousineau McGuire Chartered, counsel for Defendant Starbucks Corporation.
Donald M. Papy, Esq., and Nicholas Kallergis, Esq., City of Miami Beach; and John W. Lundquist, Esq., and Rachna B. Sullivan, Esq., Fredrikson & Byron, P.A., counsel for Defendant Rhonda Montoya.
Jeffrey S. Storms, Esq., Newmark Storms Law Office; and Rafael J. Sanchez-Aballi, Esq., Rafael J. Sanchez-Aballi, P.A., counsel for Defendant Piero Filpi.
Harold Rosen, 407 Lincoln Road, Suite 2A, Miami Beach, FL 33139, pro se Defendant.
Lowell J. Noteboom, Esq., and Andrew W. Davis, Esq., Stinson Leonard Street LLP, counsel for Defendant Stinson Leonard Street.
John Westley, a Minnesota resident proceeding pro se, has filed a fourteen-count complaint against thirty-two Defendants, alleging a litany of claims stemming from the purchase, use, and eventual foreclosure on two office condominiums located at 605Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Florida ("Florida condominiums"). (Doc. No. 1, Compl.) The crux of Westley's complaint is that a far-flung cabal of "corrupt," "bigoted," and "treasonous" mortgage lenders, realtors, insurance companies, convicts, corporations, attorneys general, lawyers, judges, and municipalities conspired to fraudulently induce him into guaranteeing the mortgage for the Florida condominiums; interfere with his commercial use of that property; foreclose on the property and evict him from the premises; destroy records, thwart Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") requests, and otherwise interfere with the legal proceedings over the property; obstruct federal criminal investigations into public corruption; and have him wrongfully arrested in Florida "for non-payment of child support for three African-American children that [he] did not father" and "physically banned from all Miami Dade County [] court buildings."1 (See id.) Not only that, but Westley further alleges that these "combined acts of coerced domestic terrorism [and] public corruption" were perpetrated on behalf of "Mossad Israeli[] Defense Force operatives," and that several of the Defendants have been grantedimmunity from federal laws by engaging in "acts of sodomy and adulterous sexual relations with female Miami Dade County judges, court officers and government officials." (Id. ¶¶ 15, 19, 32.)
Based on these allegations, Westley lists fourteen purported causes of action for inducement, misrepresentation, fraud, tortious interference, defamation, "conversion/civil theft," unjust enrichment, racketeering, "whistleblower retribution," breach, "negligence/malpractice," FOIA violations, civil rights violations, and "public trust/policy corruption." (Id. at 31-37.) In addition to his enumerated counts, Westley's complaint is strewn with references to assorted laws, provisions, and regulations—both civil and criminal—that the Defendants allegedly violated, including the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment's Taking Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection and Due Process clauses, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act ("FERA"), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ("RESPA"), the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"), the Truth in Lending Act ("TILA"), the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act ("USERRA"), the Occupational Safety and Health Act ("OSHA"), the False Claims Act ("FCA"), the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), the federal mail and wire fraud statutes, the Espionage and Sedition Acts, and unidentified Uniform Building Codes and Uniform Commercial Codes. (See id. at 6- 30.) This is the third lawsuit that Westley has filed against a passel of defendants relating to the Florida condominiums, and the fifth suit seeking redress for alleged wrongs related to property located in Miami.
Nineteen of the thirty-two named Defendants have moved to dismiss Westley's claims pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) or 12(c) for lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue, or failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.2 (See Doc. Nos. 22, 24, 33, 35, 43-44, 47, 53, 55, 75, 77, 89, 92, 112, 114, 119, 122, 148, 150, 152, 177-78, 251-52.) Rather than timely responding to the vast majority of those submissions, Westley has filed a flurry of motions requesting entry of default against Defendant Mitchell Korus, seeking to strike Defendants Harold Rosen's and Dylan Pukel's respective motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, and challengingthe admission pro hac vice of chosen counsel for Defendants Jennifer Bailey, Beatrice Butchko, Victoria Platzer, Lawrence Schwartz, Diane Ward, and the Florida Attorney General's Office.3 (See Doc. No. 106, 129, 168, 185, 206, 226.) Westley has also filed a motion for leave to file an amended complaint, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a), which not only seeks to rework his claims against Defendants Sapient Corporation and Starbucks Corporation, but also to join three additional defendants to this suit and to add claims concerning a man named Alex Omes, who ostensibly "died in late January 2015 under suspicious circumstances on the date of his own $30,000,000 civil suit" in Miami-Dade County court.4 (Doc. No. 202.)
The parties' motions have been referred to this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). (See Doc. No. 5.) For the reasons detailed below, this Court recommends that the three dismissal motions filed by Defendants Schwartz, Butchko, Bailey, Platzer, Ward, Trushin, and the Florida Attorney General's Office be granted on the ground ofimproper venue; that Westley's motion for leave to file an amended complaint be denied; that the entire case be dismissed without prejudice for improper venue; and that all other pending motions be denied as moot. Moreover, given Westley's demonstrated penchant for filing duplicative and deficient lawsuits alleging similar claims against a growing number of defendants, this Court further recommends that he be enjoined from filing any further lawsuits, pleadings, or other papers in the District of Minnesota relating to the defendants, facts, or issues involved in this or related actions unless he is represented by a licensed attorney or obtains prior approval from a judicial officer of this District.
In January 2008, Westley personally guaranteed a mortgage under which his Minnesota non-profit organization, All for the Earth Foundation ("AFTEF"), purchased two office condominiums and "related sidewalk deed rights" at 605 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Florida. (See Compl. ¶ 7); Westley v. Mann (Westley II), 896 F. Supp. 2d 775, 801 (D. Minn. 2012). The mortgage was subsequently assigned to Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC ("Bayview"). Westley II, 896 F. Supp. 2d at 801. Westley and his businesses, FTV/Fashion Studios/Fashion Lounge and the Womb/Krib TV Broadcasting, entered into a long-term commercial lease for the premises, which they intended to use to "operate broadcast stations," produce music videos, stage fashion shoots, and "host fundraising events." (Compl. ¶ 8.) As part of the property purchase and leasehold, Westley and AFTEF allegedly wired $10,000 from his personal bank account in Minnesota to cover closing costs, fees, and title insurance; paid $117,000 in property taxes; and outlaid over $400,000 to obtain "Certificates of Occupancy and Use" and tobring the premises into compliance with "ADA access, zoning, Federal Historical Preservation area authorizations, fire life safety protections, [and] OSHA requirements."
In his current suit, Westley alleges that various Defendants "fraudulently induced" him into guaranteeing AFTEF's mortgage, leasing the premises, paying taxes and fees, and making improvements...
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