Amen El Pharaoh El-Forever Left-i v. Schnell

Background

Amen El, who was incarcerated at Minnesota Correctional Facility–Stillwater, filed an amended complaint naming multiple counties, state entities, a private health-care company representative, and numerous individuals. The amended complaint asserted four broad groups of claims: a claim concerning his religious name and officials’ use of his birth name; retaliation for a state-court civil-rights lawsuit; claims about medical treatment for back conditions and alleged retaliation related to another lawsuit; and alleged racial discrimination and denial of access to the courts.

Amen El later submitted an attachment seeking to add a COVID-19 claim. He alleged that officials placed him in a cell previously occupied by someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, denied requests for cleaning supplies and another cell, and denied his request to purchase a more effective mask. The proposed COVID-19 claims named several existing defendants and added a Jane Doe defendant and Centurion Managed Care, LLC.

Joinder and amendment

The court applied Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 18 and 20. Rule 18 permits a party to bring multiple claims against one opposing party. Rule 20 limits the joinder of multiple defendants to claims arising from the same transaction or occurrence, or series of related transactions or occurrences, and involving a common legal or factual question.

The court concluded that the amended complaint violated Rule 20 because its four groups of claims involved separate subjects and did not arise from the same events. The court also concluded that adding the COVID-19 allegations would worsen the misjoinder problem by adding a fifth subject and two defendants. It therefore denied the Supplement, treated as a motion to amend the amended complaint.

Because Amen El was proceeding without a lawyer, the court gave him an opportunity to file a second amended complaint. The court ordered him to select one related transaction, occurrence, or series of occurrences and limit the allegations and defendants accordingly. It also stated that he could instead select one defendant and bring multiple claims against that defendant. The court allowed 30 days for filing. It stated that failure to file could lead to a recommendation that the action be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute.

Other rulings

The court granted Amen El’s Application to Proceed in District Court Without Prepaying Fees or Costs after he paid the required initial partial filing fee. The court postponed service of the summons and complaint until it reviewed the second amended complaint.

The court recommended denying the motion for an equity injunction, preliminary injunction, and temporary restraining order without prejudice. It explained that the requested relief concerned COVID-19 allegations, and that the proper scope of any injunction depended on whether those allegations were included in the second amended complaint. The recommendation was not directly appealable to the Court of Appeals because it was not a final district-court order. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright signed the order and recommendation.