Calvino v. Brown
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-11954
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Calvino v. Brown, Judge McMahon dismissed Ernest Calvino Jr.’s pro se complaint as frivolous and denied fee-free status for any appeal.
Ernest Calvino Jr.’s case was dismissed, he was not allowed to amend the complaint, and he was denied permission to appeal without paying fees. Najee Brown was the defendant in the dismissed action.
What happened
In Calvino v. Brown, Ernest Calvino Jr. sued Najee Brown, claiming that Brown had conspired to harm him. Calvino asked the court to return his property.
Calvino had permission to file without paying court fees. The court found that his allegations were irrational and had no legal basis, and it dismissed the case as frivolous without allowing him to amend the complaint.
Judge McMahon also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Calvino permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Calvino v. Brown · No. 1:19-cv-11954
- Colleen McMahon
- Jan. 22, 2020
Background
Ernest Calvino Jr. brought this action against Najee Brown using the court’s general complaint form. He proceeded without a lawyer. Calvino alleged that Brown had conspired to harm him and wrote: “claim to support me, claim that he has my asset, someone claim hes holding my mail to help me.” He sought the return of his property.
The court had previously allowed Calvino to proceed without paying filing fees. The opinion also states that Calvino had filed numerous other complaints in the court since December 17, 2019, and had been warned that further frivolous or harassing litigation could lead to restrictions on filing future cases without prior permission.
Legal standard
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B), the court must dismiss a complaint filed without paying fees if it is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim for relief, or seeks money from a defendant who is legally immune. The court must also dismiss when it lacks authority to hear the case. Although courts must read complaints filed by people without lawyers generously, a claim is frivolous when it has no reasonable factual or legal basis.
Court’s analysis and ruling
The court concluded that, even when read generously, Calvino’s allegations were irrational and had no legal theory supporting them. It determined that the defects could not be fixed by an amended complaint, so it declined to give Calvino permission to amend. The court dismissed the action as frivolous under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B).
Judge Colleen McMahon also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith. As a result, the court denied Calvino permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal. The Clerk was directed to mail the order to Calvino and record service on the docket.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.