In re Wentworth Civil Rights Cases

District Court, S.D. California·Decided May 2, 2022·No. 3:21-cv-00757·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 IN RE WENTWORTH CIVIL RIGHTS No. 21-cv-00757-BAS-AGS CASES, 12 ORDER DECLARING DAWN 13 WENTWORTH A VEXATIOUS LITIGANT 14

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17 On April 4, 2022, the Court issued a Tentative Order Declaring Dawn Wentworth a 18 Vexatious Litigant. (ECF No. 22.) The Court held a hearing on the Tentative Order, at 19 which Ms. Wentworth appeared. (ECF No. 25.) For the following reasons, the Court 20 confirms its tentative order and declares Ms. Wentworth a vexatious litigant for these 21 consolidated civil rights cases. 22 I. Background 23 On April 16, 2021, Ms. Dawn Wentworth, on her own behalf and on behalf of her 24 two children, Yaw Appiah, and Journee Hudson, filed seventy-four civil rights complaints 25 in this federal district court. Many of the complaints were duplicative; they sued the same 26 defendants based on the same allegations. On June 16, 2021, she added one more case 27 with duplicative allegations. The listed basis of federal jurisdiction in all seventy-five of 28 these cases was “the Civil Rights Act of 1964” and “the Unruh Civil Rights Act.” The 1 Court consolidated sixty-eight of these cases that made the same allegations against a 2 school district, teachers, law enforcement, and others concerning events involving her 3 children’s education. These sixty-eight cases were consolidated under the name In re 4 Wentworth Civil Rights Litigation, Case No. 21-cv-0757-BAS-AGS, and are shown in 5 Attachment 1. 6 The Court scheduled a hearing for May 17, 2021, and ordered Ms. Wentworth to 7 appear to discuss these duplicative lawsuits. (ECF No. 4.) The Court warned Ms. 8 Wentworth that if she did not appear for the hearing, the Court would issue an order to 9 show cause as to why she should not be declared a vexatious litigant. (Id.) When both the 10 order of consolidation and the order setting a hearing were returned as undeliverable, the 11 Court reissued the order and changed the zip code from 92065 to 92068. (ECF No. 8.) 12 Although this reissued order was not returned as undeliverable, Ms. Wentworth 13 failed to appear for the May 17, 2021, hearing. The Court then granted Ms. Wentworth 14 and her children’s Motions to Proceed In Forma Pauperis, but dismissed the consolidated 15 sixty-eight cases under Rule 8 and for failure to state a claim and gave Ms. Wentworth 16 until August 27, 2021, to file an Amended Complaint. (ECF No. 11.) The order of 17 dismissal was returned to the Court—again as undeliverable—despite being sent to the 18 updated zip code of 92068. Further, Ms. Wentworth failed to file an amended complaint. 19 On November 17, 2021, Ms. Wentworth moved to reinstate the dismissed action. 20 (ECF No. 18.)1 However, she did not provide any amended complaint curing the defects 21 outlined in the Court’s dismissal order. 22 With respect to the other seven non-consolidated cases, the Court also granted Ms. 23 Wentworth’s requests to appear in forma pauperis, but again dismissed the complaints 24 under Rule 8 and for failure to state a cause of action. (See Wentworth v. HHSA Co. Admin. 25 Ctr., No. 21-cv-697-BAS; Wentworth v. Uber Corp. Headquarters HA, No. 21-cv-699- 26

27 1 Despite the fact that the order dismissing the cases was returned as undeliverable, Ms. Wentworth is 28 apparently tracking the progress of her cases since she attaches information about the Court’s order of 1 BAS; Wentworth v. Sw. Airlines HQ, No. 21-cv-702-BAS; Wentworth v. Chase Inc., No. 2 21-cv-0730-TWR; Appiah, Hudson & Wentworth v. Big O Tires, No. 21-cv-0737-BAS; 3 Appiah, Hudson & Wentworth v. Oceanside Tire & Service Ctr., No. 21-cv-0755-BAS; 4 Wentworth v. NCHS Oceanside Health Ctr. & Personnel, No. 21-cv-0756-BAS.) The 5 Court gave Ms. Wentworth until September 3, 2021, to file an amended complaint. Ms. 6 Wentworth failed to do so.2 7 On November 12 and 15, 2021, Ms. Wentworth filed another sixteen cases. As a 8 preliminary matter, the address listed on all sixteen of these cases is the same address that 9 has resulted in a return of mail as undeliverable in past cases. Furthermore, in six of these 10 cases, Ms. Wentworth specifically indicates that this is the second time she has filed the 11 case, as the original was filed in April 2021. (See Wentworth v. Larsen, No. 21-cv-1935- 12 BAS; Wentworth v. AM/PM After School Program, No. 21-cv-1936-BAS; Wentworth v. 13 Calif. Bd. of Educ., No. 21-cv-1938-BAS; Wentworth v. Parco, No. 21-cv-1939-BAS; 14 Wentworth v. U.S. Dept. of Educ., No. 21-cv-1941-BAS; Wentworth v. Sw. Airlines, No. 15 21-cv-1943-BAS.) Thus, although the original cases were dismissed with leave to amend, 16 rather than amending, Ms. Wentworth simply waited and then refiled new cases. 17 Unfortunately, the new cases did not cure the defects outlined in the Court’s earlier orders 18 dismissing the actions. 19 Seven of the new cases had duplicate allegations about a racial slur allegedly being 20 used during an on-line gym class between September 13 and September 24, 2021. (See 21 Wentworth v. Calif. Connections Academy, No. 21-cv-1926-BAS; Wentworth v. Pavlich, 22 No. 21-cv-1927-BAS; Wentworth v. Conley, No. 21-cv-1928-BAS; Wentworth v. Tamayo, 23 No. 21-cv-1929-BAS; Wentworth v. Savage, No. 21-cv-1930-BAS; Wentworth v. Rivas, 24 No. 21-cv-1931-BAS; Wentworth v. Pulsipher, No. 21-cv-1932-BAS.) Although the cases 25 each listed a different defendant, they appeared to arise out of the same event and should 26

27 2 Again, the Court’s orders granting dismissal were returned as undeliverable. The Court later recused 28 on one of these cases: Wentworth v. Chase, Inc., No. 21-cv-00730-TWR-AGS. That case is likewise now 1 have been combined into one case, particularly given the Court’s guidance to Ms. 2 Wentworth in her previous cases. 3 Further, Ms. Wentworth filed two new cases against AT&T (No. 21-cv-1927-BAS) 4 and Xfinity Comcast (No. 21-cv-1942-BAS)—both arising out of the failure of her security 5 system. And she filed a new case against the U.S. District Court, the sole allegation of 6 which is: “I have filed civil rights violation cases with the U.S. federal court . . . . All the 7 cases were not filed after a change of custody.” (No. 21-cv-1940-BAS.) 8 All of the new cases suffered from the same defects as the original seventy-five cases 9 filed in April and June 2021: they simply did not comply with Rule 8’s requirement that 10 the complaint contain a “short and plain statement of [each] claim.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). 11 This Court set a hearing for December 20, 2021 to determine whether Ms. 12 Wentworth should be declared a vexatious litigant for: (1) repeatedly filing complaints 13 without keeping the Court updated as to a valid address; (2) filing duplicate complaints 14 with insufficient allegations under Rule 8; (3) failing to appear at an earlier hearing when 15 ordered to do so by the Court; (4) rather than filing amended complaints as allowed by the 16 Court, filing new complaints long after the deadline for amendment had passed; and 17 (5) repeatedly filing complaints without any good faith expectation of prevailing. Ms. 18 Wentworth was warned that if she failed to appear for this hearing, the Court was likely to 19 declare her a vexatious litigant. 20 Ms. Wentworth failed to appear at the hearing. Since then, she left voicemail 21 messages with the Court, stating more lawsuits need to be filed, that she is in the process 22 of gathering more evidence, and that her mail is being tampered with. Further, Ms. 23 Wentworth returned to the courthouse, stating she plans to file an additional eighty 24 lawsuits. And on the day the Court issued its Tentative Order, Ms. Wentworth attempted 25 to file a collection of additional lawsuits.

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