Doe v. Mower County Sheriff Office

Background

John-Henry Doe filed this lawsuit against Mower County Sheriff Office and Jason Bresser based on an alleged May 18, 2015 interaction. His complaint alleges several constitutional and federal-law violations. Doe also filed an application to proceed without paying filing fees.

A magistrate judge issued a December 28, 2018 report and recommendation recommending that the complaint be dismissed for failure to state a claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii), a provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Because the recommendation proposed dismissing the complaint, the magistrate judge did not decide the merits of Doe’s fee-waiver application and instead recommended denying it. Doe objected. The defendants had not yet been served and did not respond to the objections.

Doe included an “Amendment to Complaint” section in his objections. The district court stated that Doe had not filed an amended complaint and took no action on the attempted amendment.

Court’s Analysis

The district court explained that it could review the magistrate judge’s recommendation independently, including beyond the specific scope of Doe’s objections. It then addressed whether § 1915 was a proper basis for dismissing the complaint before service.

The court recognized that § 1915 can permit early dismissal for failure to state a claim in certain circumstances. But it relied on its prior analysis that § 1915 does not apply to nonprisoner cases. The court stated that Doe is not a prisoner and declined to depart from that analysis. It also stated that it was not persuaded by unpublished appellate decisions on which the recommendation relied.

Because § 1915 was not a proper ground for early dismissal in this nonprisoner case, the court rejected the recommendation to dismiss Doe’s complaint under that statute. The court stated that Doe’s objections were moot in light of that conclusion.

Order and Effect

The court ordered that the magistrate judge’s December 28, 2018 report and recommendation be rejected. It remanded Doe’s application to proceed without paying filing fees to the magistrate judge for consideration of the application’s merits.

The order did not grant or deny the application, decide whether the complaint states a claim, or resolve the underlying allegations. Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright signed the order.