Da Silva Jackson v. Nelson

District Court, W.D. Washington·Decided September 7, 2022·No. 2:22-cv-00053·Unknown

Opinion

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4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7 VASTI MARIA DA SILVA JACKSON, CASE NO. 2:22-cv-00053-JHC 8 Plaintiff, ORDER 9 v. 10 STEVE KEITH NELSON, 11 Defendant. 12 13

14 I. 15 INTRODUCTION 16 This matter comes before the Court sua sponte on Plaintiff Vasti Maria Da Silva 17 Jackson’s Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”). Dkt. # 29. The Court has examined the SAC 18 and dismisses it without leave to amend. The Court dismisses Plaintiff’s federal claims with 19 prejudice but dismisses her state-law tort claims without prejudice. 20 II. BACKGROUND 21 Magistrate Judge Michelle L. Peterson granted Plaintiff in forma pauperis (“IFP”) status. 22 See Dkt. # 5. 23 24 1 In her initial complaint, Plaintiff asserted that, since August 2003, Defendant violated her 2 Fourteenth Amendment rights to life and liberty. Dkt. # 6 at 1–2, 16–17. Plaintiff alleged that 3 Defendant and his associates with the FBI accused, investigated, and interrogated her for various

4 crimes; drugged, raped, and trafficked her for sex; forced her to commit robberies; engaged in a 5 nearly twenty-year-long campaign to harass her; and posed as employers, stalked her at her 6 places of employment, and prevented her from obtaining and maintaining employment. Dkt. # 6 7 at 2–14. The complaint requested “punitive damages that shall be paid by [Defendant] on the 8 amount of . . . 19 MILLION DOLLARS,” and alleged that Plaintiff’s daughter incurred $16 9 million in damages. Id. at 17. The Court dismissed Plaintiff’s original complaint without 10 prejudice and with leave to amend. Dkt. # 24 at 3. 11 Plaintiff then filed a First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), asserting claims under 42 12 U.S.C. § 1983, 15 U.S.C. § 6851(b), and various federal criminal statutes, as well as a tort-law

13 claim for intentional or reckless infliction of emotional distress (“IIED”). Dkt. # 25. The Court 14 dismissed Plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim and her federal criminal claims with prejudice. 15 Dkt. # 28 at 11. The Court dismissed Plaintiff’s 15 U.S.C. § 6851(b) claim without prejudice 16 and without leave to amend. Id. The Court dismissed Plaintiff’s IIED claim without prejudice 17 and with leave to amend for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Id. The Court also stated that 18 “Plaintiff may not add new causes of action or new parties without first obtaining leave from the 19 Court under Local Civil Rule 15 to do so.” Id. 20 Plaintiff then filed the SAC. Dkt. # 29. In the SAC, Plaintiff asserts—for the first time— 21 claims under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 22 (1971), Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968), and 18 U.S.C. § 1503, as well as tort claims for

23 24 1 deceit, false imprisonment, sexual assault, and battery. Dkt. # 29 at 1–5. Plaintiff also reasserts 2 her claim for IIED.1 Id. at 3. 3 III. ANALYSIS 4 A. Standard for Dismissal 5 8 U.S.C. § 1915 governs dismissal of IFP complaints. First, Section 1915 requires the 6 Court to dismiss an IFP complaint if it fails to state a claim. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii). 7 “[S]ection 1915(e) not only permits but requires a district court to dismiss an in forma pauperis 8 complaint that fails to state a claim.” Lopez v. Smith, 203 F.3d 1122, 1127 (9th Cir. 2000) (en 9 banc) (emphasis added). A court evaluating an IFP complaint applies the same standard as it 10 applies to a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. Watison v. Carter, 668 F.3d 1108, 1112 (9th Cir. 11 2012). Under that standard, “a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, 12 to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 13 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). The facts alleged “must 14 be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555. The 15 court need not accept as true a legal conclusion presented as a factual allegation. Id. Because 16 Plaintiff is pro se, the Court construes the pleadings liberally. See Hebbe v. Pliler, 627 F.3d 338, 17 342 (9th Cir. 2010). 18 Second, Section 1915 requires the Court to dismiss an IFP complaint if it is frivolous. 19 See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(i) (“[T]he court shall dismiss the case at any time if the court 20 determines that the action . . . is frivolous.”). An action is frivolous if “it lacks an arguable basis 21 either in law or in fact,” or if the complaint describes “fantastic or delusional scenarios.” Neitzke 22

23 1 At various points in the SAC, Plaintiff also refers to the tort of outrage. See, e.g., Dkt. # 29 at 3. Because IIED and outrage are simply different names for the same tort, see Kloepfel v. Bokor, 149 Wash. 24 2d 192, 193 n.1, 66 P.3d 630 (2003), the Court refers to this claim as an IIED claim. 1 v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325, 328 (1989). In this respect, Section 1915 provides courts with 2 “the unusual power to pierce the veil of the complaint’s factual allegations and dismiss those 3 claims whose factual contentions are clearly baseless.” Id. at 327.

4 Also, the Court must dismiss a complaint if it presents no basis for subject matter 5 jurisdiction. The Court has an obligation to determine sua sponte whether it has subject matter 6 jurisdiction over the case. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(h)(3) (“If the court determines at any time that 7 it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction, the court must dismiss the action.” (emphasis added)); Valdez 8 v. Allstate Ins. Co., 372 F.3d 1115, 1116 (9th Cir. 2004); Emiabata v. Bank of N.Y. Mellon Tr. 9 Co. NA/JP Morgan Chase (SLS), No. 17-cv-01302-JLR, 2017 WL 4838840, at *1 (W.D. Wash. 10 Oct. 3, 2017) (dismissing an IFP claim under Section 1915 when it failed to establish subject 11 matter jurisdiction); Lacy v. Brinkman, No. 13CV416-WQH-BGS, 2013 WL 5278930, at *1–2 12 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 17, 2013) (same).

13 When a court dismisses a pro se plaintiff’s complaint, it must give the plaintiff leave to 14 amend “unless ‘it is absolutely clear that the deficiencies of the complaint could not be cured by 15 amendment.’” Rosati v. Igbinoso, 791 F.3d 1037, 1039 (9th Cir. 2015) (quoting Akhtar v. Mesa, 16 698 F.3d 1202, 1212 (9th Cir. 2012)); see also Lopez, 203 F.3d at 1126–31. 17 B.

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