West v. Tester

• Court: District Court, District of Columbia
• Decided: July 10, 2024
• Docket: Civil Action No. 2024-1560
• Status: Published

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

LEO WEST, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil Action No. 24-01560 (UNA) ) ) JON TESTER, ) ) Defendant. )

MEMORANDUM OPINION

This action, brought pro se, is before the Court on review of Plaintiff’s Complaint, ECF

No. 1, and application to proceed in forma pauperis, ECF No. 2. The Court will grant the

application and dismiss the complaint.

Complaints filed by pro se litigants are held to less stringent standards than those applied

to formal pleadings drafted by lawyers. See Yellen v. U.S. Bank, Nat’l Assoc., 301 F. Supp. 3d 43,

47 (D.D.C. 2018). Still, pro se litigants must comply with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Id. Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires that a complaint contain a short and

plain statement of the grounds upon which the court’s jurisdiction depends, a short and plain

statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief, and a demand for judgment for

the relief the pleader seeks. Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a). It “does not require detailed factual allegations,

but it demands more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.”

Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

The Rule 8 standard ensures that defendants receive fair notice of the claim being asserted

so that they can prepare a responsive answer, mount an adequate defense, and determine whether

the doctrine of res judicata applies. See Brown v. Califano, 75 F.R.D. 497, 498 (D.D.C. 1977). The standard also assists the court in determining whether it has jurisdiction over the subject

matter.

In the one-page complaint, Plaintiff writes “False statement Veteran Afair [sic] on the

Veteran shalter [sic] rel[ief] claim for 5,000,000.” Plaintiff does not state the basis of federal court

jurisdiction and allege facts to “give the defendant fair notice of what the claim is and the grounds

upon which it rests.” Jones v. Kirchner, 835 F.3d 74, 79 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (cleaned up).

Consequently, this case will be dismissed by separate order.

2024.07.10 July 10, 2024 16:51:51 -04'00' _____________________________

TREVOR N. McFADDEN, U.S. District Judge