Wallace v. All Personal Liability Carriers-Underwriters of Land

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 25, 2023
Docket1:22-cv-08022
StatusUnknown

This text of Wallace v. All Personal Liability Carriers-Underwriters of Land (Wallace v. All Personal Liability Carriers-Underwriters of Land) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wallace v. All Personal Liability Carriers-Underwriters of Land, (S.D.N.Y. 2023).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK CHARLES KENNETH WALLACE, SR.; RONALD HILLIS, Plaintiffs, -against- 22-CV-8022 (LTS) ALL PERSONAL LIABILITY CARRIERS- UNDERWRITERS OF LAND; RICHARD ORDER SACKLER; MORTIMER; D.A. SACKLER; KATHE SACKLER; THERESA SACKLER; ILENE SACKLER-LEFCOURT; MARIANA SACKLER, aka, The Sackler Family aka The Sackler Familia, Defendants. LAURA TAYLOR SWAIN, Chief United States District Judge: Plaintiff Charles Kenneth Wallace, Sr. (“Wallace”), who currently is incarcerated at the David Wade Correctional Center (“DWCC”) in Homer, Louisiana, and Plaintiff Ronald Hillis (“Hillis”), who also is incarcerated at the DWCC, initiated this action pro se. They assert claims arising from the “opioid crisis” against the “Sackler Family,” claiming that the “complaint occurred against the backdrop in the genocide of a universal opioid crisis, resulting in over half a million deaths.”1 (ECF 3, at 2.) Plaintiffs seek to recover Defendants’ property, concerning which Plaintiffs allege that Defendants “have consistently steathly hidden away real and liquid assets since the . . . Plaintiffs filings therein.” (Id. at 3.) Plaintiffs requested to proceed without prepayment of fees, that is, in forma pauperis (“IFP”). By order dated December 23, 2022, the Court denied Wallace’s request to proceed IFP

1 The Court quotes from the complaint verbatim. All spelling, punctuation and grammar are as in the original. and dismissed the complaint without prejudice under the “three-strikes” provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”), 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). The Court based its finding on a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (“Fifth Circuit”), see Wallace v. Louisiana, 689 F. App’x 286 (5th Cir. 2017), which held that Wallace was barred under Section 1915(g) because he had accrued at least three strikes. Following its own independent review of

those strikes, as required under Esclaera v. Samaritan Vill., 938 F.3d 380, 381 (2d Cir. 2019) (per curiam), the Court agreed with the Fifth Circuit’s determination and found that Section 1915(g) applied to this new action. The Court noted that, should Plaintiff Hillis intend to proceed with this action, he could file a new civil action and request that the Court waive prepayment of the filing fees.2 The Clerk of Court entered judgment on December 27, 2022. The following day, on December 28, 2022, Wallace filed a notice of appeal, challenging the order of dismissal. By mandate issued July 18, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Court of Appeals”) vacated the judgment and remanded the action for further proceedings regarding Wallace’s “status as a three-strikes litigant.” (ECF 12, at 1.) The

Court of Appeals also directed the Court “to consider whether the Fifth Circuit’s finding that Wallace had three strikes precludes relitigation of Wallace’s three-strikes status under collateral estoppel.” (Id. at 2.) The Court has reviewed the strikes identified by the Court of Appeals in its mandate. Based on current Second Circuit case law and the instructions set forth in the mandate, the Court has determined that Wallace is not barred under Section 1915(g). As discussed below, the Court finds that (1) the four strikes the Court of Appeals identified should not be treated as strikes, (2) the Fifth Circuit’s finding that Wallace accumulated at least three strikes does not preclude

2 Court records indicate that Hillis did not file a new civil action. relitigation of that decision, (3) Wallace has accrued only one strike, arising from a prior dismissal, and therefore (4) Wallace is not barred under Section 1915(g) from proceeding IFP. The Court therefore directs Wallace – and Hillis should he want to pursue this action – to submit the attached prisoner authorizations, which they did not include with their IFP applications.3 (See ECF 1-2.)

DISCUSSION Section 1915(g) provides, In no event shall a prisoner bring a civil action [IFP] if the prisoner has, on 3 or more prior occasions, while incarcerated or detained in any facility, brought an action or appeal in a court of the United States that was dismissed on the grounds that it is frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, unless the prisoner is under imminent danger of serious physical injury. As the Court of Appeals noted in its mandate in this action, the Court “may rely on the relevant docket sheets if they indicate with sufficient clarity that the prior suits were dismissed on the grounds that they were frivolous, malicious, or failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.” Wallace v. All Personnel Liability Carriers-Underwriters, No. 23-0047, at 1-2 (2d Cir. July 18, 2023) (quoting Harris v. City of New York, 607 F.3d 18, 23-24 (2d Cir. 2010)). Courts, however, should conduct their own “independent review” without relying on the docket sheets, and instead by reviewing the actual orders from prior actions to determine whether the prior dismissals were strikes, as the Court of Appeals did in Esclaera, 938 F.3d at 381, if there is

3 Wallace and Hillis did attach authorization forms to their IFP applications, but those forms did not include language authorizing their facility to deduct $350, in installments, to the Clerk of Court for the Southern District of New York. Generally, individuals who are incarcerated are required to pay the full $350 filing fee even when proceeding IFP. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). Courts collect, when funds exist in a prisoner account, an initial partial filing fee and then monthly payments. The agency having custody of the incarcerated individual forwards payments from the prisoner account to the Clerk of Court each time the amount in the account exceeds $10, until the filing fees are paid. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2). any ambiguity. The Court may not treat an action as a strike if it was dismissed for both Section 1915(g) and non-1915(g) grounds, commonly referred to as “mixed dismissals.” See id. at 381- 82. With these standards in mind, the Court considers the four actions and appeals the Court of Appeals identified to determine whether they may be counted as strikes under Section

1915(g). Of these four actions and appeals, the Court, conducting its own independent review under Escalera in the December 23, 2022 order, treated three as strikes. Upon further review, the Court now finds that those three strikes should not be treated as such because (1) the relevant docket sheet does not indicate with sufficient clarity that a dismissal was based on frivolousness, (2) one Fifth Circuit dismissal does not expressly provide the reason for its dismissal of an appeal, and (3) one summary affirmance of a district court dismissal on strike grounds should not be treated as a strike. A. The Four Cases Identified in the Court of Appeals’ Mandate 1. Wallace v. Katz, No. 94-CV-0938 (E.D. La. Apr. 28, 1994) This Court considered the dismissal of Wallace v. Katz as a strike when it conducted its independent review under Escalera. Because the Court of Appeals instructed the Court to

reconsider this finding, the Court has reviewed the docket sheet and concluded on second review that the record lacked sufficient clarity to treat the dismissal as a strike. According to the Eastern District of Louisiana’s docket sheet, the Magistrate Judge assigned to Wallace v.

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Bluebook (online)
Wallace v. All Personal Liability Carriers-Underwriters of Land, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wallace-v-all-personal-liability-carriers-underwriters-of-land-nysd-2023.