Braho v. Not Identified

99 Fed. Cl. 355, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1317, 2011 WL 2746311
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJuly 11, 2011
DocketNo. 11-230C
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 99 Fed. Cl. 355 (Braho v. Not Identified) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Braho v. Not Identified, 99 Fed. Cl. 355, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1317, 2011 WL 2746311 (uscfc 2011).

Opinion

ORDER

HORN, Judge.

Plaintiff David Paul Braho submitted a pro se filing to this court on April 7, 2011, alleging $87.6 billion in damages related to a July 15, 2000 traffic stop on a Pennsylvania road. According to Mr. Braho, a police officer stopped him for driving past a stop sign. Plaintiff alleges that the officer requested Mr. Braho’s license and registration and examined them in the officer’s vehicle. Plaintiff further alleges that:

after returning whithout2 [sic] my documents the police officer proceded [sic] to ask me “What is your address.” After considerig [sic] the officers [sic] procedure of checking my registration and for a stol-len [sic] motor vehicle complaint, I responded with the question ‘Are you illerate [sic].’ The officer repeated the same question. I responded with the same question, this [sic] time there was no response, so I proceded [sic] to put out my cigarette and get out of my motor vehicle to retreive [sic] my three documonts [sic].3

Mr. Braho asserts that the officer responded by spraying mace in his eyes and, subsequently, arrested him for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Mr. Braho claims that his arrest constituted “willful misconduct by the officer of the Laws of Congress” because the police officer did not administer a blood test, nor did the officer obtain a warrant or subpoena before examining Mr. Braho’s three documents. Additionally, Mr. Braho argues that the driving under the influence charge is invalid because he was never indicted by a grand jury. In his initial filing, plaintiff claims that he “informed Judge Dolbson [sic]4 ... of the need for a grand jury Indictment.” He claims that the altercation left him “blindied [sic] for several days,” resulting in the loss of one year’s pay, and forcing him to initiate “Bankruptsy [sic] chapter 11 (claim is greater than counterclaim) accounting procedure.” These damages, he asserts, entitle him to a “full years pay,” calculated “at the rate of ‘U.S.C.. [sic] 1994 ed.’ one fellony [sic] per .1 of a hour,” totaling “250,000 dollars per count.” Mr. Braho further asserts that this amount should be quadrupled, “plus costs,” because the defendant is “an orginization [sic],” and the “United States is also not a chartiable [sic] orginization [sic].” No calculation was offered by Mr. Braho in support of his claim for $87.6 billion in total damages, which is the number indicated on the cover sheet of his filing.

On May 11, 2011, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff responded with “Plaintiffs Motion to Strike Defendant’s Motion to Dissmiss [sic] and Insufficent [sic] Defense.” Among the references in plaintiffs response there also is a reference to an unrelated Mercer County, Pennsylvania court case, apparently involving a kidnapping.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff has submitted his documents pro se, along with the $350.00 filing fee. When determining whether an initial pleading filed by a pro se plaintiff is sufficient to [358]*358invoke review by a court, pro se plaintiffs are entitled to liberal construction of their submissions. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (requiring that allegations contained in a pro se complaint be held to “less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers”), reh’g denied, 405 U.S. 948, 92 S.Ct. 963, 30 L.Ed.2d 819 (1972); see also Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007); Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 9-10, 101 S.Ct. 173, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980); Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), reh’g denied, 429 U.S. 1066, 97 S.Ct. 798, 50 L.Ed.2d 785 (1977). However, “there is no ‘duty [on the part] of the trial court ... to create a claim which [plaintiff] has not spelled out in his [or her] pleading..." Scogin v. United States, 33 Fed.Cl. 285, 293 (1995) (quoting Clark v. Nat’l Travelers Life Ins. Co., 518 F.2d 1167, 1169 (6th Cir.1975)) (alterations in original); see also Bussie v. United States, 96 Fed.Cl. 89, 94 (2011); Minchan v. United States, 75 Fed.Cl. 249, 253 (2007). “While a pro se plaintiff is held to a less stringent standard than that of a plaintiff represented by an attorney, the pro se plaintiff, nevertheless, bears the burden of establishing the Court’s jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence.” Riles v. United States, 93 Fed.Cl. 163, 165 (2010) (citing Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. at 9, 101 S.Ct. 173 and Taylor v. United States, 303 F.3d 1357, 1359 (Fed.Cir.) (“Plaintiff bears the burden of showing jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence”), reh’g and reh’g en banc denied (Fed.Cir.2002)).

“First,, ‘subject-matter jurisdiction, because it involves a court’s power to hear a case, can never be forfeited or waived.’ ” Arbaugh v. Y &H Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 514, 126 S.Ct. 1235, 163 L.Ed.2d 1097 (2006) (quoting United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625, 630, 122 S.Ct. 1781, 152 L.Ed.2d 860 (2002)). “[F]ederal courts have an independent obligation to ensure that they do not exceed the scope of their jurisdiction, and therefore they must raise and decide jurisdictional questions that the parties either overlook or elect not to press.” Henderson ex rel. Henderson v. Shinseki, — U.S.-, 131 S.Ct. 1197, 1202, 179 L.Ed.2d 159 (2011); see also Hertz Corp. v. Friend, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 1181, 1193, 175 L.Ed.2d 1029 (2010) (“Courts have an independent obligation to determine whether subject-matter jurisdiction exists, even when no party challenges it.” (citing Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U.S. at 514, 126 S.Ct. 1235)); Special Devices, Inc. v. OEA, Inc., 269 F.3d 1340, 1342 (Fed.Cir.2001) (“[A] court has a duty to inquire into its jurisdiction to hear and decide a case.” (citing Johannsen v. Pay Less Drug Stores N.W., Inc., 918 F.2d 160, 161 (Fed.Cir.1990))); View Eng’g, Inc. v. Robotic Vision Sys., Inc., 115 F.3d 962, 963 (Fed.Cir.1997) (“[C]ourts must always look to their jurisdiction, whether the parties raise the issue or not.”). “The objection that a federal court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction ... may be raised by a party, or by a court on its own initiative, at any stage in the litigation, even after trial and the entry of judgment.” Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U.S. at 506, 126 S.Ct. 1235; see also Rick’s Mushroom Serv., Inc. v. United States, 521 F.3d 1338, 1346 (Fed.Cir.2008) (“[A]ny party may challenge, or the court may raise sua sponte, subject matter jurisdiction at any time.” (citing Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U.S. at 506, 126 S.Ct. 1235; Folden v. United States, 379 F.3d 1344, 1354 (Fed.Cir.), reh’g and reh’g en banc denied (Fed.Cir.2004), cert. denied, 545 U.S. 1127, 125 S.Ct. 2935, 162 L.Ed.2d 865 (2005); and Fanning, Phillips & Molnar v. West, 160 F.3d 717, 720 (Fed.Cir.1998))); Pikulin v. United States, 97 Fed.Cl. 71, 76 (2011).

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99 Fed. Cl. 355, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1317, 2011 WL 2746311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/braho-v-not-identified-uscfc-2011.