Boag v. MacDougall

454 U.S. 364, 102 S. Ct. 700, 70 L. Ed. 2d 551, 1982 U.S. LEXIS 56, 50 U.S.L.W. 3539

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: January 11, 1982
• Docket: 80-6845
• Status: Published

Opinions

Per Curiam.

Petitioner, who was then an inmate of the Arizona Department of Corrections Reception and Treatment Center, filed a crudely written complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, in which he alleged, inter alia, that he had been placed in solitary confinement on March 3, 1980, without any notice of charges or any hearing, that he was threatened with violence when he asked what the charges were, and that he was still in “the hole” a week later. The District Court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the case was moot because petitioner had been transferred to another facility.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals did not endorse the District Court’s mootness rationale, and rightfully so, since the transfer did not moot the damages claim. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeals affirmed, 642 F. 2d 455 (1981), concluding that first, district courts have “especially broad” discretion to dismiss frivolous actions against prison officials under 28 U. S. C. § 1915(d), and second, petitioner’s action is frivolous because it does not state a claim upon which relief can be granted. We need not address the permissible contours of the Court of Appeals’ first conclusion, for its second conclusion is erroneous as a matter of law. Construing petitioner’s inartful pleading liberally, as Haines v. Kerner, 404 U. S. 519 (1972), instructs the federal courts to do in pro se actions, it states a cause of action. See Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U. S. 539, 555-572 (1974). On the basis of the record before us, we cannot find a sufficient ground for affirming the dismissal of the complaint.

*

The motion of petitioner for leave to proceed informa pau-peris and the petition for certiorari are granted, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Neither the Court of Appeals nor the District Court relied upon the argument advanced in the dissenting opinion. Indeed, the dissent’s information that petitioner had attempted to file a dozen previous civil rights actions is not disclosed in the record, the opinions below, or the briefs filed with this Court. We recognize that 28 U. S. C. § 1915(d) vests the federal courts with broad discretion to take judicial notice of such information and to identify and dismiss frivolous complaints, but it does not appear from the papers before us that any such discretion was exercised by either the Court of Appeals or the District Court; both courts relied solely upon erroneous legal grounds for dismissing the complaint. We are in no position to decide, on the basis of these legal errors and this record, whether the argument advanced in the dissenting opinion would have “satisfied [the District Court] that the action is frivolous or malicious.” 28 U. S. C. § 1915(d). A question of that character must be addressed in the first instance by the District Court. If a dismissal is to be based on the ground that petitioner failed to comply with the local rule, or that his prior filings justify the conclusion that his action is frivolous or malicious, a brief statement explaining that ground should be made by the District Court to facilitate intelligent appellate review.