McKinney v. Napier et al

Filing 104

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER: (1) 87 MOTION for Default Judgment is DENIED. (2) Pla shall SHOW CAUSE w/in 14 days of entry of this order why his Amended Complaint should not be dismissed w respect to Dft Angela Napier and this matter stricken from the active docket. Signed by Judge Joseph M. Hood on 6/19/2018.(SCD)cc: COR,Pro Se Pla(via US Mail)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
CENTRAL DIVISION at LEXINGTON
ROBERT WILLIS MCKINNEY,

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Plaintiff,
v.
ANGELA NAPIER, et al.,
Defendants.

Civil Case No.
18-CV-00031-JMH

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER

***
This matter is before the Court upon Plaintiff’s Motion for
Default

Judgment

failure

to

12(a)(1)(i).

[DE

answer
The

in

87]
the

Court

as

to

time
is

Defendant
provided

not

Angela

by

persuaded

Fed.
that

Napier
R.

for

Civ.

P.

relief

is

warranted for the reasons which follow.
Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b)(2), a district court may
enter judgment by default when a defendant has failed to plead
or defend.

“[W]hile a defaulted defendant is deemed to admit

the plaintiff's well-pleaded allegations of fact, he is not held
to admit facts that are not well-pleaded or to admit conclusions
of law.” Cotton v. Mass. Mut. Life Ins. Co., 402 F.3d 1267, 1278
(11th Cir. 2005) (alteration omitted) (quotation marks omitted).
Entry of default judgment is only warranted when there is “a
sufficient basis in the pleadings for the judgment entered.”

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Nishimatsu Constr. Co. v. Houston Nat'l Bank, 515 F.2d 1200,
1206 (5th Cir. 1975).
Defendant Angela Napier may be in default, as she has not
answered the Complaint, but the Court is not persuaded that
default judgment is appropriate or that judgment against her
will ever be appropriate on the claims as averred. Plaintiff’s
Amended

Complaint

does

not

meet

the

basic

federal

pleading

requirement that a complaint “shall contain . . . a short and
plain

statement

of

entitled to relief.”

the

claim

showing

that

Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a).

the

pleader

is

“Rule 8 requires

only that the complaint give the defendant fair notice of the
claim and its supporting facts[,]” E.E.O.C v. J.H. Routh Packing
Co., 246 F.3d 850, 854 (6th Cir. 2001), but Plaintiff’s Amended
Complaint fails to do so.

Plaintiff has made no claims against

Defendant Angela Napier in his Amended Complaint.
complains

that

other

individuals

took

various

While he

actions

which

injured him in response to a report that he made against Angela
Napier, he has not averred any actions or wrongdoing on her part
in this action.
Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED:
(1)

That Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment [DE 87]

is DENIED and
(2)

that Plaintiff shall SHOW CAUSE within FOURTEEN (14)

DAYS of entry of this order why his Amended Complaint should not
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be dismissed with respect to Defendant Angela Napier and this
matter stricken from the active docket.
This the 19th day of June, 2018.

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