White v. Department of Corrections

Background

Robert White filed this lawsuit without a lawyer while held at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. The complaint alleged that White and 27 other prisoners were forced to undergo unacceptable mandatory or random specialized searches involving being stripped naked. The complaint named all 28 prisoners as plaintiffs, but only White signed it. White was also the only prisoner who submitted a signed application to proceed without paying the filing fee and a prisoner authorization; the court had granted White permission to proceed without paying that fee.

Why the Court Severed the Claims

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20 permits multiple plaintiffs to join one lawsuit when their claims arise from the same transaction or occurrence and share a common legal or factual question. Rule 21 allows a court to separate claims when doing so serves fairness and efficient case management.

The court concluded that managing the multi-prisoner lawsuit as one case would not be fair or efficient. First, each unrepresented plaintiff could appear only for himself or herself, so White could not represent the other 27 prisoners. Second, each unrepresented plaintiff would have to personally sign every filing, but prisoners could be released or transferred and therefore might be unable to sign future documents. Third, security concerns would substantially limit the prisoners’ ability to communicate, discuss strategy, share evidence, or exchange filings. The court found that these circumstances could lead to piecemeal filings, delays, and missed deadlines.

Ruling

The court severed all claims belonging to the 27 plaintiffs other than White under Rule 21. White will proceed as the sole plaintiff in this action. The clerk must open a separate civil action, with a new docket number, for each of the other 27 plaintiffs and file a copy of the complaint and this order in each new case. Those cases will proceed independently unless the court later orders otherwise. The court stated that severance did not prevent the cases from later being treated as related or consolidated.

After the new cases are opened, the court will direct the 27 other plaintiffs to submit signed complaint signature pages and either pay the required fees or submit completed applications to proceed without paying the fees and prisoner authorizations. The court did not decide whether the alleged searches were lawful. It also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.