Dean v. ARA Environmental Services, Inc.

124 F.R.D. 224, 28 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1594, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15844, 1988 WL 148265
District Court, N.D. Georgia·Decided June 27, 1988·No. No. 1:88-CV-55-RHH·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

ORDER

ROBERT H. HALL, District Judge.

Pro se plaintiff in this action is an excessively litigious litigant in this court. Dean has filed no less than 34 cases with this court, 14 of which have been summarily dismissed as frivolous pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d). See Appendix A (for a full recitation of the cases [225] brought by plaintiff in this district since 1982 and the disposition of those claims). These numerous and frequent filings have resulted in enormous and disproportionate administrative and judicial resources in the handling of plaintiffs frivolous and often harassing actions. Currently before the court are (1) defendants Beverly Enterprises’ motion for summary judgment, (2) defendant K-Mart’s motion to dismiss, (3) defendant ARA Environmental Services’ motion to dismiss and for sanctions and for injunctive relief, and (4) plaintiff Dean’s motion for summary judgment.

FACTS

A. Filings in Federal Court

Since 1982, Dean has filed 34 suits in the Northern District of Georgia. Examples of the defendants against whom Dean has filed suit include the United States of America, Judge J. Owen Forrester, Judge Robert H. Hall, the State of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Transportation, the Georgia Department of Labor, the Georgia Department of Family and Children’s Services, the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the DeKalb Police Department, the DeKalb Magistrates Court, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the YMCA.

Of the 34 suits filed in this district, fourteen were dismissed as frivolous pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d), six were dismissed with prejudice, eight were dismissed for failure to state a claim or as premature, and one judge entered Rule 11 sanctions against Dean for filing a frivolous action. See Appendix A.

Undeterred by this record of failure and sanctions, Dean has filed thirteen appeals in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Six of his appeals are still pending, four have been dismissed for failure to pay filing fees, one was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, a petition for writ of mandamus was denied, and in one case, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a suit as frivolous pursuant to § 1915(d).

B. Filings Against Beverly Enterprises

In the current action, Dean alleges that he is owed unpaid wages in the amount of $1,187,507.20 arising from defendant Beverly’s violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act by virtue of judgments awarded him in C87-276A, C87-1011A, and C87-1037A. Dean filed three actions, Thomas G. Dean v. Beverly Enterprises, 1:87-CV-276-RHH (N.D.Ga.), Thomas G. Dean v. Beverly Enterprises, 1:87-CV-1011-RHH (N.D.Ga.), and Thomas G. Dean v. Beverly Enterprises, 1:87-CV-1037-RHH (N.D.Ga.) against defendant Beverly Enterprises apparently claiming under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. (“FLSA”) that his former employer, Beverly Enterprises, denied him overtime compensation and allegedly terminated him for filing a lawsuit under the FLSA to recover the amount of that compensation. As the three cases arose out of plaintiff’s employment with this defendant and raised common questions of law under the FLSA, this court consolidated these three actions for purposes of discovery, pretrial motions and trial.

On March 25, 1988 this court granted defendant Beverly’s motion to dismiss and dismissed the three actions with prejudice. Plaintiff did not receive a judgment award against defendant Beverly in any of these cases. Plaintiff has failed to contradict the showing of these facts by defendant Beverly Enterprises.

C. Filings Against K-Mart

Plaintiff has previously filed at least one lawsuit against defendant K-Mart. Dean v. Ellington and K-Mart, 1:87-CV-2511-RHH (N.D.Ga.). This court on November 19, 1987 granted summary judgment in favor of defendants. One of plaintiff’s appeals from that order is pending, another was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. See Appendix A.

In the instant case, defendant K-Mart moves to dismiss because there was no personal service or request for acknowledgement of service in violation of Rule 4, Fed.R.Civ.P. Attorney for defendant K-Mart states that the papers of suit were merely forwarded to him as the attorney for K-Mart in the previous action. The attorney states that he is not the agent for [226] service of K-Mart, nor has he received a request for acknowledgement of service.

D. Filings Against ARA Environmental Services

Although Dean’s only contact with ARA was ARA’s employment of Dean for a six-week period in 1986, Dean has filed four lawsuits and two appeals against ARA. The instant claim was instituted under the FLSA to recover for alleged services rendered in 1987 as a commercial cleaner for ARA. Apparently, Dean contends that he has become an owner of defendant ARA by virtue of the alleged failure to pay him.

On the last page of his Complaint, Dean claims relief from ARA for wages in the amount of $12,480.00 for services rendered in 1987, liquidated damages, attorney’s fees, and costs of this action. Defendant ARA counters simply that Dean was never employed by ARA in 1987. As Dean himself has admitted in his deposition, he was employed by ARA only for a six-week period in 1986. Dean Dep. at 11-12, taken in Dean v. ARA Environmental Services, Inc., No. C86-2786.

Giving plaintiff every benefit of the doubt and assuming he has merely confused the dates of his employment, Dean’s claim is essentially identical to a previous claim by Dean against ARA litigated in Dean v. ARA Environmental Services, Inc., No. C86-2746A. In that case, defendant ARA Environmental Services moved this court to grant partial summary judgment in favor of Dean in the amount of $170.00, the only amount of unpaid overtime that Dean admitted he was entitled to receive. ARA was forced to make such a motion because Dean refused to settle his claim for less than $35,502.50 and defendant, while not admitting liability, was unwilling to go to the expense of contesting Dean’s claim for a mere $170.00 of unpaid overtime. The court granted the motion and denied Dean’s remaining claims. Dean then filed a frivolous Bill of Costs requesting the unsubstantiated sum of $870,-132.00.

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Dean v. ARA Environmental Services, Inc., 124 F.R.D. 224, 28 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 1594, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15844, 1988 WL 148265 (N.D. Ga. 1988).

124 F.R.D. 224 (Dean v. ARA Environmental Services, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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