Schagene v. United States

37 Fed. Cl. 661, 1997 U.S. Claims LEXIS 79, 1997 WL 178012
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedApril 9, 1997
DocketNo. 97-266C
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 37 Fed. Cl. 661 (Schagene 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
Schagene v. United States, 37 Fed. Cl. 661, 1997 U.S. Claims LEXIS 79, 1997 WL 178012 (uscfc 1997).

Opinion

ORDER

WEINSTEIN, Judge.

Plaintiff has moved to proceed in forma pauperis with her complaint against the United States. That motion is granted. The clerk of the court is directed to file the complaint as of the original date of receipt. However, the complaint is dismissed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B), for being frivolous and for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted.

Plaintiffs motion to proceed in for-ma pauperis raises an interesting question. Access to the courts of the United States for even the poorest of citizens has long been a right in this country. Congress first granted federal courts the authority to allow indigent plaintiffs to proceed without paying federal court filing costs in 1892.1 See 28 U.S.C. § 1915; Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 324, 109 S.Ct. 1827, 1831, 104 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989).

In enacting the Prison Litigation Reform Act, Pub.L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321 (1996) last year, Congress intended to discourage “frivolous and abusive prison lawsuits.” H.R.Rep. No. 104-378 at 166 (1995), and to prevent convicted criminals from receiving “preferential treatment” to that of “average law-abiding citizens.” 144 Cong. Rec. 575251 daily ed. May 25, 1995 (statement of Sen. Dole). However, in amending 28 U.S.C. § 1915, the federal in forma pau-peris statute Congress also amended the general section of the statute, § 1915(a)(1), in such a manner as to possibly eliminate that right for non-prisoners.

Currently, after the 1996 amendment, § 1915(a)(1) reads:

Subject to subsection (b), any court of the United States may authorize the commencement, prosecution or defense of any suit, action or proceeding, civil or criminal, [662]*662or appeal therein, without prepayment of fees or security therefore, by a person who submits an affidavit that includes a statement of all assets such prisoner possesses that the person is unable to pay such fees or give security therefor. Such affidavit shall state the ñatee of the action, defense or appeal and affiant’s belief that the person is entitled to redress.

28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1) (emphasis added).

The 1995 conference committee amendments to an earlier version of the bill added for the first time the highlighted phrase “that includes a statement of all assets such prisoner possesses,” to what became the final version of the amendments. Use of the word “prisoner,” instead of “person,” acts to limit application of the statute to prisoners only. Thus, in its attempt to restrict prisoners’ access to federal courts, Congress eliminated those rights for non-prisoners.2

When determining the meaning of a statute, courts must look first to its text. “[I]n interpreting a statute a court should always turn first to one, cardinal canon before all others. We have stated time and again that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there.” Connecticut Nat. Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253-54, 112 S.Ct. 1146, 1149, 117 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992) (citing United States v. Ron Pair Enters., Inc., 489 U.S. 235, 241-242, 109 S.Ct. 1026, 1030-1031, 103 L.Ed.2d 290 (1989); United States v. Goldenberg, 168 U.S. 95, 102-103, 18 S.Ct. 3, 4, 42 L.Ed. 394 (1897); Oneale v. Thornton, 6 Cranch 53, 68, 3 L.Ed. 150 (1810)).

Judicial inquiry may extend further than the words of a statute only when the language is ambiguous. Connecticut Nat. Bank, 503 U.S. at 254, 112 S.Ct. at 1149-1150 (citing Rubin v. United States, 449 U.S. 424, 430, 101 S.Ct. 698, 701-702, 66 L.Ed.2d 633 (1981); Ron Pair Enters., 489 U.S. at 241, 109 S.Ct. at 1030).

A court should look beyond the language of the text of a statute and should delve into other extrinsic indicia of legislative intent, such as legislative history, only in the rare instance where a literal reading of a statute will produce an absurd result. Int’l Primate Protection League v. Admin. of Tulane Educ. Fund, 500 U.S. 72, 84-86, 111 S.Ct. 1700, 1708, 114 L.Ed.2d 134, 148-150 (1991) (citing Public Citizen v. Department of Justice, 491 U.S. 440, 454, 109 S.Ct. 2558, 2566-2567, 105 L.Ed.2d 377 (1989) (quoting Green v. Bock Laundry Mach. Co., 490 U.S. 504, 509, 109 S.Ct. 1981, 1984-1985, 104 L.Ed.2d 557 (1989)) (Scalia, J. concurring) (appropriate to consult legislative history of statute which, if interpreted literally, produces absurd result). See Green v. Bock Laundry at 526, 109 S.Ct. at 1993. Ron Pair Enters., 489 U.S. at 242, 109 S.Ct. at 1030-1031; Griffin v. Oceanic Contractors, Inc., 458 U.S. 564, 571, 102 S.Ct. 3245, 3250, 73 L.Ed.2d 973 (1982) ; Commissioner v. Brown, 380 U.S. 563, 571, 85 S.Ct. 1162, 1166, 14 L.Ed.2d 75 (1965); Helvering v. Hammel, 311 U.S. 504, 510-511, 61 S.Ct. 368, 371-372, 85 L.Ed. 303 (1941)).

Here, the awkwardness of the sentence’s grammar, the unusual use of the narrow term “prisoner” to modify a sentence that elsewhere refers to the broad term “person,” and the omission of the word “and,” see supra note 2, create facial ambiguity. This is one of those rare circumstances where congressional intent rather than the language of the statute must prevail.

This court has reviewed the legislative history of the Prison Litigation Reform Act and found no expression of an intent to eliminate the access of indigent non-prisoners to the courts.3 Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals [663]*663for the Sixth Circuit performed a similar review and reached the same conclusion. Floyd v. United States Postal Serv., 105 F.3d 274, 275-77 (6th Cir.1997). The Sixth Circuit thus substituted “person possesses” for the phrase “prisoner possesses.” Id. The only other appeals court to consider the question, the Second Circuit, read the amendment the same way (but without explanation). Leonard v. Lacy,

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Bluebook (online)
37 Fed. Cl. 661, 1997 U.S. Claims LEXIS 79, 1997 WL 178012, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schagene-v-united-states-uscfc-1997.