Jones v. United States Postal Service

690 F. App'x 147
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 12, 2017
Docket16-20789 Summary Calendar
StatusUnpublished

This text of 690 F. App'x 147 (Jones v. United States Postal Service) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. United States Postal Service, 690 F. App'x 147 (5th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

The court has considered appellant’s challenge to the dismissal of her complaints by the district court. According to the following discussion, we AFFIRM.

BACKGROUND

In her original complaint, Jones simply states that she is suing the United States Postal Service (USPS) for compensatory damages “on the following grounds,” and then lists an assortment of statutes, rules, and Constitutional provisions lacking logical relation. 1 Aside from this patchwork *148 list, Jones’s complaint is otherwise naked. It is completely void of factual assertions and provides no information concerning the USPS conduct she is seeking relief from or why she is entitled to that relief. Further, the complaint fails to state a legally cognizable claim at all. Regardless of the absence of factual support, it is impossible to determine what law Jones is alleging was violated by the USPS.

Jones’s amended complaint appears to shed some light on the series of events that may form the basis of her claim. Attached to the amended complaint was a December 2014 letter from the USPS. The letter was sent to provide notice that the USPS computer systems had been hacked and that Jones’s personal information may have been part of the compromised data. 2 It concluded with an apology and a statement that “the Postal Service is committed to taking steps to strengthen the security of our systems and provide you with the resources you need as a result of this incident.”

Also attached to the amended complaint was a United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) letter from March 2016. Jones had previously filed a complaint with the EEOC in June 2015 relating to the USPS letter, asserting that the USPS intentionally allowed the theft of her identity in retaliation for a prior EEOC claim in 1993. The EEOC dismissed Jones’s complaint for failure to state a claim under 29 C.F.R. § 1614.107(a)(1), and that dismissal was affirmed in an administrative appeal. The EEOC also denied Jones’s request for reconsideration and granted her the right to file a civil action in district court within 90 days.

Unfortunately, any clarity provided by the letters appended to Jones’s amended complaint is blurred by the complaint itself. The amended complaint is filed on an “Employment Discrimination Complaint” form, but again lacks any legal or factual allegations.

Based on the entries on the form, it appears Jones is alleging that the USPS discriminated against her on the basis of her race and gender by failing to promote her at some point in time. In the section titled “[w]hen and how the defendant has discriminated against the plaintiff’ — where she should have provided the facts she believes entitle her to relief — Jones listed more statutes and regulations with no (or only a tangential) relation to an employment discrimination claim. 3 The amended complaint is also the first time Jones discloses her sought after relief: $500 billion.

Jones also filed an additional complaint that changes her theory of recovery entirely. The document is titled “Complaint for a Civil Case Alleging Breach of Contract” and lists the U.S. Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney’s Office as additional defendants. Like the prior complaints, this pleading also lacks any factual allegations. The “Statement of Claim” section is blank, except for a paragraph that lists the elements for what appears to be a tortious interference with contract claim. No facts are offered to show the subject of any alleged contract, when it was entered into, or how it was breached.

The complaint takes an even more curious turn in the “Relief’ section, where Jones lists things like “F.B.I. involvement in this investigation” and “dog attack pri- or” as reasons why she is entitled to mone *149 tary relief on her contract claim. While the legal basis of the additional complaint— breach of contract — is much more clear, it still suffers from the same affliction as those before it — it is completely devoid of any factual support.

The district court dismissed Jones’s case for failing to state a claim. Fed. R. Civ. Pro, 12(b)(6). Judge Hughes noted that “the court could not discern a timely legal theory in Jones’s original, amended, or additional complaint against the .[USPS].” The court also denied Jones’s motion for default judgment, because the USPS was never served and its absence from the proceedings was not grounds for default.

ANALYSIS

For a complaint to be valid, it must contain a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 8(a)(2). The purpose of a complaint is to provide notice to the defendant of what the claim is and the “grounds upon which it rests.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964-65, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47, 78 S.Ct. 99, 103, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957)). While this standard does not require “detailed factual allegations,” it does demand more than conelusory statements or “threadbare recitals” of the elements of a particular cause of action. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. at 1966). A complaint that merely tenders “naked assertion[s] devoid of further factual enhancement” is insufficient and fails to properly state a claim for relief. Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. at 1949 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 557, 127 S.Ct. at 1966) (internal quotation marks omitted).

The core objective when reviewing the sufficiency of a complaint is “to determine whether the plaintiff has stated a legally cognizable claim that is plausible.” Lone Star Fund V (U.S.), L.P. v. Barclays Banks PLC, 594 F.3d 383, 387 (5th Cir. 2010). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. at 1949.

Jones has failed to meet the necessary requirements to properly state a claim for relief. Her pleadings do not even rise to the level of “threadbare recitals” of the elements of a cause of action. Jones simply lists statutes, rules, and Constitutional provisions as the “basis” for her claim, but the cited authorities are not topically related and provide no channeling assistance to guide the court to her ultimate allegation(s). Additionally, even if Jones had explicitly provided the legal theory she was pursuing, she did not provide any supporting factual allegations.

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Related

Lone Star Fund v (U.S.), L.P. v. Barclays Bank PLC
594 F.3d 383 (Fifth Circuit, 2010)
Conley v. Gibson
355 U.S. 41 (Supreme Court, 1957)
Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
690 F. App'x 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-united-states-postal-service-ca5-2017.