Stuckey v. People Republic of China
- Yvonne Rogers
- 4:20-cv-07344
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Stuckey v. People’s Republic of China, Judge Rogers denied class certification and dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims without prejudice for nonpayment and an incomplete fee-waiver filing.
Andre Kenneth Stuckey and the additional named inmate plaintiffs were affected. The additional plaintiffs were dismissed without prejudice, and Stuckey’s action was dismissed without prejudice for failing to pay the filing fee or submit a complete fee-waiver application. The proposed class was not certified.
What happened
In Stuckey v. People’s Republic of China, Andre Kenneth Stuckey filed a lawsuit as a prisoner, claiming to represent other inmates and seeking damages and other court-ordered relief related to the coronavirus pandemic. The complaint named the People’s Republic of China and other defendants.
The court treated Stuckey’s request to represent the inmates as a request to certify a class action. It denied that request because a self-represented prisoner cannot adequately represent a class. The court dismissed the additional named plaintiffs from the case without prejudice.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers then dismissed Stuckey’s federal civil-rights action without prejudice because he neither paid the filing fee nor submitted a complete application to waive it. The court said Stuckey could ask to reopen the case by submitting a complete application or paying the filing fee, and it closed the file.
The detailed version
- Stuckey v. People Republic of China · No. 4:20-cv-07344
- Yvonne Rogers
- Dec. 15, 2020
Background
Andre Kenneth Stuckey filed a self-represented prisoner complaint on behalf of himself and additional plaintiffs, who were also inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison. He purported to represent all incarcerated inmates in California in claims seeking damages and equitable relief based on harm from the coronavirus pandemic against the People’s Republic of China and other defendants.
Class certification
The court construed Stuckey’s request as a motion to certify a class under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. One requirement for class certification is that the proposed representative fairly and adequately protect the class’s interests. Relying on precedent, the court held that self-represented prisoner plaintiffs cannot adequately represent a class. It therefore denied Stuckey’s motion for class certification and dismissed the additional named plaintiffs from the action without prejudice.
Filing fee and disposition
The Clerk had notified Stuckey that the action could not proceed unless he paid the filing fee or submitted a completed application to proceed without paying it. Stuckey submitted a certificate of funds and a six-month prison trust-account statement, but he did not pay the filing fee or return a complete application within the required period.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed the federal civil-rights action without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). The order stated that Stuckey could move to reopen the action by submitting a complete application to proceed without paying the fee or paying the $400 filing fee. The Clerk was directed to terminate all pending motions and close the file.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.