LEWIS v. WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY

District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided June 22, 2023·No. 2:23-cv-01604·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

TORREY-TYREE LEWIS : CIVIL ACTION : v. : NO. 23-1604 : WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND : SOCIETY, BALLARD SPAHR LLP, : ANDREW M. CAROBUS, CHRISTINE : L. BARBA, SHERIFF DELAWARE : COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA, JOHN : OLIVER, RAMSEYS MOVING : SYSTEMS, LLC :

MEMORANDUM KEARNEY, J. June 22, 2023

Delaware County officials acted on a writ of possession on two identified properties. They seized personal possessions. The owner of the properties first pro se sued government officials and private entities. We screened his allegations. We then dismissed his Complaint with leave to amend last month. He timely amended to sue a bank, its lawyers, and a local moving company for not giving him notice of acting on a writ of possession and then colluding to unlawfully confiscate his life possessions. He still does not allege steps taken in state court to address this harm by local private persons. He instead wants to charge these private persons with crimes and award him seventy-five million dollars in damages for violating his civil rights, under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, and fraud and trespass. We must screen and liberally construe his pro se allegations again. But he does not state a claim under federal law. He cannot bring criminal charges through our Court. We decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over his state law claims. We afforded the property owner leave to amend. He amended. But he still does not state a claim within our limited jurisdiction. We dismiss his federal claims with prejudice and his state law claims without prejudice to pursuing his state law remedies in state court. I. Alleged pro se facts Torrey-Tyree Lewis owned two pieces of property for an unknown period in Chester, Pennsylvania located at 702 East 20th Street and 731 Irvington Place.1 He claims a bank, two attorneys, and a moving company unlawfully confiscated all his possessions at these two locations.2

Wilmington Savings Fund Society, Attorney Andrew Carobus, Attorney Christine Barba, and Ramseys Moving Systems “colluded together to unlawfully confiscate” all of Mr. Lewis’s “life possessions” first at 731 Irvington Place on October 27, 2021 and then again a year and a half later at 702 East 20th Street on April 19, 2023.3 Mr. Lewis claims he “never received Notice” and “was denied his Right of Due Process and has never seen a day in court regarding these matters.”4 But an unnamed attorney for Wilmington Savings Fund Society served Mr. Lewis with a Writ of Possession from the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas on April 19, 2023 while the movers “illegally and unlawfully confiscate[ed] all of [Mr. Lewis’s] life’s possession[s] from [his] home.”5 The Writ dated June 23, 2022 directed “the Sheriff of Delaware County,

Pennsylvania” to satisfy the judgment for possession in Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB v. John Does 1 through 4, Unknown Tenants/Occupants and 702 E. 20th St., LLC by delivering to Wilmington Savings Fund Society “the following described property”—702 East 20th Street, Second Floor, Front, Chester, PA 19013, PA Tax Parcel No. 49-01-00361-00.6 Attorneys Barba and Andrew Carobus—on behalf of their client Wilmington Savings Fund Society—signed and filed a “Praecipe to Reissue Writ of Possession” on March 2, 2023 in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.7 The Writ appears to have been re-issued on March 2, 2023.8 The Writ “wasn’t signed by a Judge, nor was an Affidavit attached, nor did it have an Order with a Seal from the court or [ ] judge[.]”9 So Mr. Lewis claims the bank, two attorneys, and moving company “trespassed upon [him] and [his] estate[.]”10 Mr. Lewis asks through a “Writ of Replevin” we “immediately order the Marshals to retrieve and return all of [his] belong[ings] back to: 702 East 20th Street[.]”11 Mr. Lewis does not allege what, if anything, he did in state court to challenge the writ of possession. II. Analysis

Mr. Lewis sues Wilmington Savings Fund Society, Attorneys Carobus and Barba, and Ramseys Moving Systems.12 He claims they confiscated his property and demands “a Grand Jury investigation be performed on these matters [i]mmediately.”13 Mr. Lewis seeks $75,000,000.00 in monetary damages.14 And he asks for declaratory and injunctive relief.15 Mr. Lewis began this case two months ago against the Wilmington Savings Fund Society, the Sheriff of Delaware County, Deputy Sheriff John Oliver, Director of the Office of Judicial Support Mary J. Walk, Attorneys Carobus and Barba, and Ramseys Moving Systems.16 We granted Mr. Lewis leave to proceed in forma pauperis.17 Mr. Lewis then filed another Complaint about a month later bringing only state law replevin claims and adding the Commonwealth and Attorneys Carobus and Barba’s firm Ballard Spahr LLP as newly named defendants.18 We liberally

construed the allegations in his second Complaint and those in his original Complaint as one consolidated Complaint, and screened the consolidated Complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B).19 We dismissed Mr. Lewis’s claims against the Commonwealth and Director Walk with prejudice as the Commonwealth is immune from suit and Director Walk is entitled to quasi-judicial immunity.20 We dismissed with prejudice his claims based on criminal statutes as any amendment would be futile.21 We dismissed Mr. Lewis’s claims alleging the Wilmington Savings Fund Society, the Sheriff of Delaware County, Deputy Sheriff Oliver, Attorneys Carobus and Barba and their law firm, and Ramseys Moving Systems: (1) violated Mr. Lewis’s due process rights; and (2) conspired to deprive him of his property by violating his due process rights under section 1983.22 But we gave Mr. Lewis an opportunity to amend to sue the Sheriffs in their individual capacities if he could allege facts showing they violated his due process rights and conspired with other state actors.23 And we granted Mr. Lewis leave to amend to sue the attorneys, the law firm, the bank,

and the moving company if he could demonstrate the necessary state action and show how each individual and entity reached an agreement to deprive him of his constitutional rights.24 We dismissed Mr. Lewis’s claims brought under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act and declined to exercise our supplemental jurisdiction over Mr. Lewis’s state law claims for fraud and replevin.25 Mr. Lewis amended his Complaint.26 Congress requires we again screen the incarcerated Mr. Lewis’s amended Complaint and dismiss if he cannot state a claim.27 We must determine whether Mr. Lewis pleads “sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.”28 We must dismiss a claim if it “lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact.”29 The use of the term “frivolous” in section 1915 “embraces not only the inarguable legal

conclusion, but also the fanciful factual allegation.”30 ‘“At this early stage of the litigation,’ ‘[we will] accept the facts alleged in [the pro se] complaint as true,’ ‘draw[] all reasonable inferences in [the plaintiff’s] favor,’ and ‘ask only whether [that] complaint, liberally construed, . . . contains facts sufficient to state a plausible [] claim.’”31 Conclusory allegations do not suffice.32 We construe Mr. Lewis’s pro se allegations liberally.33 Mr. Lewis’s amended Complaint, construed in the most liberal fashion without speculation, seemingly tries to plead claims against Wilmington Savings Fund Society, Attorneys Carobus and Barba, and Ramseys Moving Systems for: • violating criminal statutes; • violating the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act; and • committing fraud and trespass under Pennsylvania law.34 It is unclear whether Mr. Lewis still claims the bank, attorneys, and moving company

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LEWIS v. WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, (E.D. Pa. 2023).

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