Calvino v. Jones
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-11601
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Calvino v. Jones, Judge McMahon dismissed the pro se complaints as frivolous and denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
Ernest Calvino, Jr., and the defendants named or identified in the complaints, including Loretta Y. Jones, Anneka C., unidentified staff members, and other listed defendants.
What happened
Calvino v. Jones involved complaints by Ernest Calvino, Jr., who was representing himself, against several named and unidentified defendants. The court had allowed him to proceed without paying filing fees at the start of the cases.
The complaints made allegations including fraud, misleading conduct, theft, poor management, corruption, spying, and conspiracies. The court said the allegations were irrational and that no legal theory supported them.
Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the complaints as frivolous under the federal law governing fee-free cases. She declined to allow an amended complaint, warned that future frivolous filings could lead to restrictions, and denied fee-free status for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Calvino v. Jones · No. 1:19-cv-11601
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 23, 2019
Background
Ernest Calvino, Jr., appearing without a lawyer, filed several actions invoking federal-question jurisdiction. The order addresses complaints filed under docket numbers 1:19-CV-11601, 1:19-CV-11610, and 1:19-CV-11611. The court had granted Calvino permission to proceed without prepaying filing fees.
In the complaint under No. 1:19-CV-11610, Calvino named Anneka C. and alleged fraud, misleading conduct, marriage without his signature, theft, and mortgage-related misconduct. He alleged that both he and Anneka C. resided in New York.
In the complaint under No. 1:19-CV-11601, Calvino named Loretta Y. Jones and unidentified staff members who appeared to be associated with Bronx Works, a nonprofit entity. He alleged poor management, inadequate security, and corruption.
In the complaint under No. 1:19-CV-11611, Calvino alleged that a person assigned to a prior complaint had encountered him in Massachusetts and directed him to visit a boys and girls club. He also alleged connections involving other people, possession of his property, conspiracies, anonymous activity, theft of information, abuse, neglect, and misleading conduct.
Legal standard
Because Calvino was proceeding without a lawyer and without prepaying fees, the court reviewed the complaints under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B). That law requires dismissal of a complaint that is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a legally valid claim, or seeks money from a defendant protected from such relief. The court explained that a claim is frivolous when it has no arguable basis in law or fact, including when its factual allegations are irrational or wholly incredible.
Ruling
The court held that, even when read with the special consideration given to complaints filed without a lawyer, Calvino’s claims were irrational and had no legal theory on which he could rely. It therefore dismissed the complaints as frivolous under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i).
The court declined to give Calvino permission to amend because it found that the defects could not be corrected by amendment. It warned that further frivolous or abusive litigation could lead to an order barring him from filing new actions without preapproval while proceeding without prepaying fees. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.