Jones v. Kehan

Background

Robert Jones, who was incarcerated and litigating without a lawyer, brought claims concerning the calculation and collection of his child-support debt. The court had already dismissed his claims seeking discharge of that debt under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and the domestic-relations abstention doctrine. It had also dismissed his other claims for failure to state a claim, meaning that the allegations did not legally support the requested relief.

In its January 3, 2022 order, the court gave Jones 30 days to file an amended complaint. It allowed him to try to allege facts showing that he had been denied procedural due process concerning the calculation or collection of his debt. It also allowed him to allege facts showing that Defendant Meehan was a state or federal official directly involved in the alleged constitutional violations.

Jones did not file an amended complaint. Instead, the court received a letter asking that the action be held—that is, paused—until he exhausted state administrative remedies through an Article 78 proceeding. The opinion states that Jones had paid the fees required to bring the action.

Court’s Rulings

The court denied Jones’s request to hold the action in abeyance. It explained that a person cannot claim denial of procedural due process when he has not used available state procedures to challenge the conduct at issue. The court identified Article 52 administrative review and Article 78 judicial review as available procedures and found that Jones had not yet pursued all available state process, including Article 78 review.

The court therefore dismissed Jones’s procedural due process claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for failure to state a claim. Section 1983 provides a cause of action for certain constitutional violations by persons acting under state law. The court also dismissed Jones’s claims against Meehan under either Section 1983 or Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The court had previously allowed Jones to amend those claims to allege that Meehan was a state or federal official and was directly and personally involved, but Jones supplied neither the required allegations in his letter nor an amended complaint.

Disposition

The court dismissed the action. It certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees for an appeal. The Clerk was directed to mail Jones a copy of the order and record service on the docket.