Prophet v. United States

106 Fed. Cl. 456, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 979, 2012 WL 3292917
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedAugust 8, 2012
DocketNo. 12-278C
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 106 Fed. Cl. 456 (Prophet v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prophet v. United States, 106 Fed. Cl. 456, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 979, 2012 WL 3292917 (uscfc 2012).

Opinion

ORDER

HORN, Judge.

On May 2, 2012, pro se plaintiff Derrick D. Prophet filed an Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis and a complaint seeking $100,000,000.00 in damages from the United States in the United States Court of Federal Claims. Plaintiffs pro se complaint is less than one page and states in full:

1. Identification documents birth certificate, social security card and state identification has claimant name’s printed using all capital letters. The handbook for technical writers and editors (Punctuation, Grammar, and Capitalization) drafted and published by National Aeronautics Space Administration. States a person’s name is proper noun should always be capitalized meaning first letter in each name is capital letter remaining letters are lowercase. Website (muw.nasa.gov or www.sti.nasa.gov) (keyword search: Nasa SP-7084)
2. Nationality African American is counterfeit because it identifies the claimant as a continent. The plaintiff has right to change nationality because of two United States Government treaties. First treaty American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man adopted at ninth international conference of American States in Bogota Columbia 1948. Right to nationality article xix states every person has right to change nationality if he wishes. Second treaty American Convention on Human Rights Inter American specialized conference on human rights San Jose, Costa Rica 22 November 1969. Article 20 informs right to nationality no one shall be arbitrarily deprived or right to change it.
3.United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council, A/HRC/13/34 article 21 right to nationality implies individual right to acquire and change. Notice the case relating to this claim is in the appellate court case # 11-4124; Derrick Prophet v. United States Government plaintiff is seeking $100,000,000 dollars for damages.1

In sum, plaintiff contends that the instruments he names, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the American Convention on Human Rights, and the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People, entitle him to change his nationality, that his full name should appear with only the first letter of his first, middle, and last name capitalized, and that he is entitled to damages. Plaintiff does not, however, claim that he has made a request to have any such changes made.

In the cover sheet accompanying the complaint he filed in this court, plaintiff refers to a case he filed previously in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, which was dismissed in an unpublished decision, Prophet v. United States, No. 1:11-cv-00387 (S.D.Ohio Oct. 6, 2011), and which he noted was on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. See Prophet v. United States, No. 11-4124 (6th Cir. May 16, 2012). As discussed more fully below, the Sixth Circuit [460]*460dismissed plaintiffs appeal with the following notation: “Defendant not served in district court, complaint dismissed prior to service,” with an October 20, 2011 date added to the docket, apparently retroactively. In the ease filed in the Southern District of Ohio and in the appeal to the Sixth Circuit, the plaintiff also claimed that the United States had issued invalid documents due to over capitalization. Moreover, in the brief plaintiff filed in the Sixth Circuit, as in the case currently before this court, Mr. Prophet asserted that certain international human rights treaties and conventions guaranteed him the right to change his nationality. See Appellant Brief, Prophet v. United States, No. 11-4124 (6th Cir. Nov. 14, 2011).

On June 18, 2012, the United States filed a motion to dismiss plaintiffs case in this court pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) of the Rules of the United States Court of Federal Claims (RCFC) (2012), alleging that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear plaintiffs claims.

When determining whether an initial pleading filed by a pro se plaintiff is sufficient to invoke review by a court, pro se plaintiffs are entitled to liberal construction of their submissions. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972) (requiring that allegations contained in a pro se complaint be held to “less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers”), reh’g denied, 405 U.S. 948, 92 S.Ct. 963, 30 L.Ed.2d 819 (1972); see also Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007); Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 9-10, 101 S.Ct. 173, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980); Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), reh’g denied, 429 U.S. 1066, 97 S.Ct. 798, 50 L.Ed.2d 785 (1977); Wickliffe v. United States, 102 Fed.Cl. 102, 106-107 (2011). However, “there is no ‘duty [on the part] of the trial court ... to create a claim which [plaintiff] has not spelled out in his [or her] pleading....’ ” Scogin v. United States, 33 Fed.Cl. 285, 293 (1995) (quoting Clark v. Nat’l Travelers Life Ins. Co., 518 F.2d 1167, 1169 (6th Cir.1975)) (alterations in original); see also Goodman v. United States, 100 Fed.Cl. 289, 301 (2011); Bussie v. United States, 96 Fed.Cl. 89, 94 (2011) aff'd 443 Fed.Appx. 542 (Fed.Cir.2011); Minehan v. United States, 75 Fed.Cl. 249, 253 (2007). “While a pro se plaintiff is held to a less stringent standard than that of a plaintiff represented by an attorney, the pro se plaintiff, nevertheless, bears the burden of establishing the Court's jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence.” Riles v. United States, 93 Fed.Cl. 163, 165 (2010) (citing Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. at 9, 101 S.Ct. 173 and Taylor v. United States, 303 F.3d 1357, 1359 (Fed.Cir.), reh’g and reh’g en banc denied (Fed.Cir.2002)); Wickliffe v. United States, 102 Fed.Cl. at 107.

In this court, along with his complaint, plaintiff submitted an Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis asserting that he is unable to pay the filing fee. His Application indicates that he has been unemployed since July of 2007, has no source of income, and has not received any gifts, inheritances, pensions, annuities, life insurance, rents, interest or dividends in the last twelve months. He also claims he does not own real estate, stock, bonds, cash, savings or checking accounts, an automobile or any other valuable property. In order to provide access to this court to those who cannot pay the filing fees mandated by RCFC 77.1(c), the statute at 28 U.S.C. § 1915 (2006) permits a court to allow plaintiffs to file a complaint without payment of fees or security, under specific circumstances. The standard in 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1) for in forma pauperis eligibility is “unable to pay such fees or give security therefor.” Determination of what constitutes “unable to pay” or unable to “give security therefor,” and therefore, whether to allow a plaintiff to proceed

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Bluebook (online)
106 Fed. Cl. 456, 2012 U.S. Claims LEXIS 979, 2012 WL 3292917, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prophet-v-united-states-uscfc-2012.