Ellis v. Malone, et al

Filing 35

ORDER signed by Judge J P Stadtmueller on 1/8/10 denying with prejudice 33 plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend, and denying with prejudice 34 plaintiff's Motion for Good Cause. (cc: plaintiff, all counsel) (nm)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
____________________________________________ J IM M Y L. ELLIS, P l a i n t if f , v. R O N A L D MALONE and JANE DOES, D e fe n d a n ts . ____________________________________________ Case No. 02-CV-428

ORDER
T h is case was originally filed on April 26, 2002. Judgment was entered a g a in s t plaintiff on May 28, 2003. On November 16, 2009, over six years later, p la in tiff filed a Motion for Leave to Amend (Docket #31) seeking amendment of the ju d g m e n t. On December 7, 2009, the court entered an order denying such motion a s untimely. (Docket #32). Then, on December 21, 2009, plaintiff filed another M o tio n for Leave to Amend (Docket #33), as well as a Motion for Good Cause (D o c k e t #34). Both of these latter two motions are entirely duplicative of the previously filed, a n d denied, Motion for Leave to Amend. Ellis's arguments have been considered a n d rejected by this court. His behavior only serves to further burden this court's lim ite d resources. In re McDonald, 489 U.S. 180, 184 (1989) ("Every paper filed with [a court], no matter how repetitious or frivolous, requires some portion of the in s titu tio n 's limited resources. A part of the [c]ourt's responsibility is to see that these re s o u rc e s are allocated in a way that promotes the interests of justice. The continual

p ro c e s s in g of petitioner's frivolous requests for extraordinary writs does not promote tha t end."); see also In re Tyler, 839 F.2d 1290, 1292 (8th Cir. 1988) ("Judicial re s o u rc e s are limited in the short run and need to be protected from wasteful c o n s u m p tio n . Frivolous, bad faith claims consume a significant amount of judicial re s o u rc e s , diverting the time and energy of the judiciary away from processing good fa ith claims.") This order will be the final warning before the court contemplates iss u in g a prefiling injunction limiting the plaintiff's ability to file any more motions with th is court in the matter at hand, a step several federal district courts have sadly had to take in order to limit abuses of the right to access the court. See Miles v. A n g e lo n e , 483 F. Supp. 2d 491, 496 (E.D. Va. 2007) (issuing a prefiling injunction p ro h ib itin g the petitioner from filing any more motions for reconsideration without the F o u rth Circuit's approval); see also Frazier v. United States, No. 4:03CV01060 E R W , 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5622, at *6 (E.D. Mo. Jan. 28, 2009) ("Petitioner's p a tte rn of filing frivolous and improper motions in this case is an abuse of this Court's re s o u rc e s .") Other penalties may be imposed by this court at its discretion. See A le x a n d e r v. United States, 121 F.3d 312, 315 (7th Cir. 1997) (issuing a fine of $500 a n d holding that "any further applications for leave to file successive collateral a tta c k s will be deemed denied on the 30th day unless the court otherwise orders" a g a in s t a prisoner who filed excessive complaints with the court); see also In re W a lk e r, 238 F.3d 426 [published in full-text format at 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 38070] (6 th Cir. 2000) ("[P]risoners who persist in flooding the courts with frivolous and

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re p e titive actions that waste the courts' time and resources ... risk being sanctioned fo r doing so, including losing their ability to proceed in forma pauperis with respect to their future civil actions, as well as being subjected to a substantial fine.") A c c o rd in g ly, IT IS ORDERED that plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend (Docket #33) be, a n d the same is hereby DENIED with prejudice; and IT IS ORDERED that plaintiff's Motion for Good Cause (Docket #34) be and the same is hereby DENIED with prejudice. D a te d at Milwaukee, W is c o n s in , this 8th day of January, 2010. BY THE COURT:

J .P . Stadtmueller U .S . District Judge

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