Bussey v. Annucci

Background

Thirty incarcerated plaintiffs jointly filed a self-represented complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law that permits claims for violations of constitutional rights by state officials. The complaint was signed by only 20 of the 30 plaintiffs. Byron K. Brown was the only plaintiff who requested permission to proceed without prepaying the filing fee and submitted a prisoner authorization. The plaintiffs also jointly sought appointment of counsel, but that motion was signed by only 19 plaintiffs, while the supporting papers were signed only by Brown.

The plaintiffs labeled the complaint a class action. They alleged that, on April 14, 2023, more than 200 prisoners had been denied the opportunity to attend religious services at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. The court noted, however, that the rest of the allegations concerned only Brown.

Reasoning

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20 generally permits multiple plaintiffs to proceed together when their claims arise from the same event or related events and involve common legal or factual questions. Rule 21 allows a court to sever claims even without finding that joinder was improper when keeping the claims together would cause prejudice, expense, delay, or other case-management problems.

The court concluded that the plaintiffs’ claims arose from each person’s individual alleged denial of access to religious services, rather than from one common set of facts. Each plaintiff would need to provide individual details about when the denial occurred, how it affected that person, and what steps the person took to challenge it.

The court also found that the practical difficulties of managing a multi-prisoner, self-represented case weighed in favor of severance. The plaintiffs could represent only themselves, and each unrepresented plaintiff would have to personally sign every filing. Transfers, releases, security restrictions, and limited communication opportunities could lead to piecemeal filings, delays, missed deadlines, and difficulty sharing information or discovery.

Order and effect

The court severed the plaintiffs’ claims from one another under Rule 21. Brown will proceed as the sole plaintiff in the current action. The other 29 plaintiffs, including Kevin Bussey, will each receive a new civil case number. The complaint, the motion for appointment of counsel, and the order will be placed on each new docket, and the cases will proceed independently unless the court later treats them as related or consolidates them.

Each plaintiff in a new case will be directed either to pay the $402 filing fee or to submit an application to proceed without prepaying the fee and a prisoner authorization. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.