Siri v. John/Jane Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-08777
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Siri v. John/Jane Doe, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint as frivolous after unidentified people allegedly called Siri a terrorist.
Fredy Gutierrez Siri’s complaint was dismissed, he was not allowed to amend it, and he was denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The unidentified defendants were not named or otherwise identified in the opinion.
What happened
In Siri v. John/Jane Doe, Fredy Gutierrez Siri, representing himself, sued unidentified people over allegations that people had called him a terrorist. He sought to clear his name and reputation and to be relieved of psychological pain, rather than money damages.
The court reviewed the complaint because Siri had been allowed to proceed without paying filing fees. It found that the complaint identified no defendants, provided only incomplete facts about events from 1993, and offered no arguable legal basis for a claim. The court also could not review an attached letter written in Spanish because no English translation was provided.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the complaint as frivolous under the federal law governing fee-waived cases. The court declined to allow an amended complaint because it found that the defects could not be fixed, terminated all other pending matters, and denied fee-waived status for any appeal after certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Siri v. John/Jane Doe · No. 1:21-cv-08777
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 31, 2022
Background
Fredy Gutierrez Siri appeared without a lawyer and invoked federal-question jurisdiction. He alleged that unidentified people had called him a terrorist, including in court and on the streets. He stated that the events occurred in 1993 in Bronx County, New York. Siri said he had not suffered physically but had experienced substantial mental distress. He sought to clear his name and reputation and to be relieved of psychological pain, not money damages.
Siri did not complete the complaint’s caption and did not identify the defendants he intended to sue. He also attached a letter written in Spanish without an English translation, so the court stated that it could not review that letter. The court had previously granted Siri permission to proceed without prepaying filing fees, commonly called proceeding in forma pauperis.
Legal standard
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B), a court must dismiss a complaint filed without prepaying fees if it is frivolous, malicious, fails to state a claim, or seeks money from an immune defendant. The court must also dismiss a case when it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction. Although courts read self-represented complaints liberally, a claim is frivolous when it has no arguable basis in law or fact.
Court’s reasoning
The court concluded that Siri’s complaint lacked an arguable basis in both law and fact. Its sole assertion was that unidentified people had called him a terrorist approximately twenty-eight years earlier. The court could not identify a legal basis for that assertion and found no legal theory under which Siri could proceed. It therefore dismissed the complaint as frivolous under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i).
The court explained that self-represented plaintiffs are generally given an opportunity to amend defective complaints, but amendment is not required when it would be futile. It declined to grant Siri permission to amend because it found that the defects could not be cured.
Disposition
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed Siri’s complaint as frivolous. All other pending matters were terminated. The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Siri permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The clerk was directed to mail Siri a copy of the order and record service on the docket.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.