Seabrooks v. Annucci

Background

Byron K. Brown and 29 other incarcerated plaintiffs jointly filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The complaint alleged that prisoners at Sing Sing Correctional Facility had been denied the constitutional right to attend religious services. It described more than 200 prisoners as affected, but the remaining allegations concerned Brown alone. The complaint was labeled a class action.

Only Brown submitted an application to proceed without prepaying the filing fee and a prisoner authorization. The plaintiffs also submitted a motion asking for appointment of counsel, but that motion was signed by only 19 of the 30 plaintiffs, and the supporting memorandum and declaration were signed only by Brown.

Severance analysis

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20 generally permits multiple plaintiffs to join one lawsuit when their claims arise from the same event or series of events and share a legal or factual question. Rule 21 allows a court to separate claims even when joinder is not improper if keeping them together would cause prejudice, expense, or delay. Courts may consider judicial efficiency, possible prejudice, and whether the claims require different witnesses or evidence.

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

The court also found that the practical difficulties of managing a joint lawsuit brought by multiple unrepresented incarcerated people supported separation. Each plaintiff could represent only himself, and each unrepresented plaintiff would have to personally sign every filing. Transfers, releases, security restrictions, limited communication, and limited opportunities to share documents could result in piecemeal filings, delays, and missed deadlines.

Disposition

The court severed the plaintiffs’ claims from each other under Rule 21. Byron K. Brown would proceed as the sole plaintiff in this action. The remaining 29 plaintiffs—Carlos Arriago, Terrence Turner, David Louime, Dennis Antwon, Robert Campbell, Gregory White, Shantee Brooks, Eligidio Lind, Teddy Williams, Hector L. DeJesus, Apolinar Roque, Ricardo Corbin, Terel Overton, Alex Martinez, Deshard Wright, Clayton Scott, Michael A. Crane, Kevin Bussey, Eric Pek, Vaughn Campbell, Ivan T. Ramos, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Reed, Ivan Seabrooks, James Scott, Alen Haymon, Alfonso A. Howard, Stephen Robinson, and Trevor Price—would each receive a new case number. The new cases would proceed independently unless the court later treated them as related or consolidated them.

The court directed each plaintiff to pay the $402 filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepaying the fee and a prisoner authorization. It also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied the plaintiffs permission to proceed without prepaying appellate fees. The order did not decide whether the alleged denial of religious services violated the plaintiffs’ rights.