Hankerson v. 125 Worth St. Department of Health Vital Records

Background

Theresa Hankerson filed this action concerning her attempts to obtain her birth certificate from New York City’s Department of Health. The court’s April 29, 2024 order dismissed the original action for failure to state a claim and gave Hankerson 30 days to file an amended complaint that complied with Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 8 requires enough factual detail to allow a defendant to understand the allegations and allow the court to infer that a named defendant may be liable.

Hankerson filed an amended complaint on May 9, 2024. The court found that it was a near-duplicate of the original complaint and did not state new facts. The amended pleading again described her efforts to obtain her birth certificate and named several defendants, including “125 Worth St. Department,” Federal Reserve Bank, Metropolitan Hospital of Records, Banker Conseco, FDIC, FTC, “Northwell Record, Commissioner, Financial Aid, Commissioner.”

Reasoning

The court concluded that the amended complaint did not state facts suggesting that any named defendant could be held liable for misconduct. It also found that Hankerson had not alleged facts showing that any defendant violated her federal statutory or constitutional rights. The court therefore dismissed the amended complaint for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii).

The court denied further leave to amend. It explained that a pro se plaintiff—one proceeding without a lawyer—is generally given an opportunity to correct defects, but another opportunity may be denied when the plaintiff already had a chance to amend and failed to fix the problems. The court found that the defects could not be cured by another amendment.

Disposition

The court dismissed Hankerson’s amended complaint. It declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over any state-law claims she may have been asserting after dismissing the federal claims. Supplemental jurisdiction is the federal court’s authority to hear related state-law claims; the court declined to use that authority here.

The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees. It directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment in the action. The opinion does not add a “with prejudice” or “without prejudice” designation to the dismissal.