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Nature of Suit Code: 555
Nature of Suit: Prisoner - Prison Condition
Cause of Action: 

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In the 

United States Court of Appeals 

For the Seventh Circuit ____________________

No. 15‐3743

ALVERNEST KENNEDY,

Plaintiff‐Appellant,

v.

CHARLES A. HUIBREGTSE and KENNETH ADLER,

Defendants‐Appellees.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the

Eastern District of Wisconsin.

No. 2:13‐cv‐00004‐WCG — William C. Griesbach, Chief Judge.

____________________

ARGUED JULY 6, 2016 — DECIDED JULY 27, 2016

____________________

Before POSNER, SYKES, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

POSNER, Circuit Judge. The plaintiff, an inmate of a Wis‐

consin state prison, filed this in forma pauperis suit against the

defendants, who are prison doctors, in federal district court.

The suit alleges deliberate indifference to the plaintiff’s med‐

ical needs, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and also medical

malpractice in violation of Wisconsin law. A Latin phrase, in

forma pauperis means “in the character or manner of a pau‐

per” and entitles an indigent to sue without having to pay

Case: 15-3743 Document: 31 Filed: 07/27/2016 Pages: 8
2 No. 15‐3743   

the full court fees or costs in advance, though if he is not ut‐

terly penniless he can be required to make partial payment.

28 U.S.C. §§ 1915(a), (b).

In the course of the district court proceedings the de‐

fendants learned that in seeking permission to litigate in for‐

ma pauperis the plaintiff had failed to disclose that he had

approximately $1400 in a trust account outside the prison.

On the basis of that information the defendants successfully

moved the district judge to dismiss the suit pursuant to

28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(A), which states that “the court shall

dismiss the case at any time if the court determines that ...

the allegation of poverty is untrue.” The dismissal was with

prejudice, thus barring the plaintiff (if we affirm) from refil‐

ing, as he could do had the dismissal been without preju‐

dice, provided the statute of limitations had not run.

A curious feature of the appeal is that it does not chal‐

lenge the decision to dismiss the case with rather than with‐

out prejudice. At oral argument the appellant’s lawyer did

suggest that dismissal without prejudice would have been a

more appropriate sanction, but he did not develop the ar‐

gument and in any event it came too late, not having been

briefed. See, e.g., Veluchamy v. FDIC, 706 F.3d 810, 817 (7th

Cir. 2013). The reason for the bobble appears to have been

the lawyer’s erroneous belief (corrected too late) that a

three‐year statute of limitations governs the suit and that a

dismissal without prejudice would therefore “have the same

impact as a dismissal with prejudice, as the Wisconsin stat‐

ute of limitations for [the plaintiff’s] claims has expired.”

Only it hasn’t for one of his claims; the statute of limitations

for section 1983 claims in Wisconsin is six years, not three,

Reget v. City of La Crosse, 595 F.3d 691, 694 (7th Cir. 2010);

Case: 15-3743 Document: 31 Filed: 07/27/2016 Pages: 8
No. 15‐3743 3

Malone v. Corrections Corporation of America, 553 F.3d 540, 542

(7th Cir. 2009), and therefore a newly filed suit under section

1983 would be timely because the alleged malpractice oc‐

curred within the last six, though not the last three, years.

Wisconsin’s three‐year statute of limitations would, howev‐

er, bar the plaintiff’s other claim, the one for medical mal‐

practice. See Wis. Stat. § 893.55(1m).

We might forgive the lawyer’s error if we thought the

judge should have dismissed the plaintiff’s suit without

prejudice. But the decision to dismiss with prejudice was

proper. In seeking permission to appeal in forma pauperis the

plaintiff had had to fill out a form that asked him to “state

the total amount of cash and the average monthly balance in

all checking, savings, prison, or other accounts during the

last six months.” He stated: “approximately $10.00,” and ac‐

cordingly requested that the full amount of the filing fee be

deducted from his inmate “release savings account,” which

in Wisconsin is a prison account that contains funds general‐

ly available to the inmate only upon his release from prison.

Wis. Administrative Code DOC §§ 309.02(18), 309.466(2).

They can however be used to pay filing fees if a court so or‐

ders, State ex rel. Coleman v. Sullivan, 601 N.W.2d 335, 337–38

(Wis. App. 1999), and the federal district judges in Wisconsin

allow this for suits filed in their courts as well. See, e.g.,

Spence v. McCaughtry, 46 F. Supp. 2d 861, 863 (E.D. Wis.

1999).

The plaintiff had $726 in his release account. The district

judge allowed him to proceed in forma pauperis and assessed

an initial partial filing fee of $149 to be paid from the ac‐

count. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). The judge also recruited a

lawyer to assist the plaintiff with a discovery dispute, be‐

Case: 15-3743 Document: 31 Filed: 07/27/2016 Pages: 8
4 No. 15‐3743   

cause if the plaintiff’s representation of his assets was correct

he could not afford to hire a lawyer.

But in the course of pretrial discovery the defendants

learned that about a year before filing suit the plaintiff had

begun recouping child‐support payments from his ex‐wife.

A lawyer friend of his named Joshua Levy had created and

managed a trust account for the plaintiff outside the prison

into which the recouped moneys were deposited. The ac‐

count had a balance of about $1400 when the plaintiff ap‐

plied for leave to proceed in forma pauperis—not the “approx‐

imately $10” that he had claimed was all the money he had

in “all checking, savings, prison, or other accounts.”

Although he claims that because he eventually paid the

full filing fee from his release fund his failure to disclose the

trust account was much ado about nothing, the district judge

disagreed. With the release fund generally available to an

inmate only upon his release from the prison, the plaintiff

had no right to use the account to pay his filing fee when his

trust account was ample to pay it. It’s true that even when

the amount of the money in his trust fund is added to the

money in his prison release fund and his general prison ac‐

count, the total amount of his assets was only slightly in ex‐

cess of $2000, a sum consistent with poverty. But this is mis‐

leading because the prison provides prisoners with food,

clothing, shelter, medical care, and protection (albeit often

spotty) against criminal assault, making the plaintiff’s entire

$2000+ available to finance his lawsuit. Of course a suit for

deliberate indifference and medical malpractice is bound to

require a much greater expense than that to be winnable, but

the plaintiff could (and did) ask the judge to recruit counsel

for him and the judge did so, even though he lacked a com‐

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No. 15‐3743 5

plete picture of the plaintiff’s financial situation. The judge

could also have appointed a neutral expert witness under

rule 706 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, but the case was

dismissed before such an appointment was made. See

Dobbey v. Mitchell‐Lawshea, 806 F.3d 938, 941 (7th Cir. 2015);

Rowe v. Gibson, 798 F.3d 622, 631–32 (7th Cir. 2015).

Although the district judge might have granted the plain‐

tiff’s in forma pauperis petition even if he’d disclosed his sep‐

arate trust account, hiding assets is not a permissible alterna‐

tive to seeking the judge’s assistance. An applicant has to tell

the truth, then argue to the judge why seemingly adverse

facts (such as the trust fund in this case) are not dispositive.

A litigant can’t say, “I know how the judge should rule, so

I’m entitled to conceal material information from him.”

The appeal thus is doomed by 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(A),

which provides that “notwithstanding any filing fee, or any

portion thereof, that may have been paid, the court shall

dismiss the case at any time if the court determines that ...

the allegation of poverty is untrue.” That is an exact descrip‐

tion of this case; and even if, as some cases suggest, a plain‐

tiff can be excused if his misstatements were made in good

faith, Lee v. McDonald’s Corp., 231 F.3d 456, 459 (8th Cir.

2000); Matthews v. Gaither, 902 F.2d 877, 881 (11th Cir. 1990),

this is not such a case, involving as it does a deliberate, ma‐

terial lie. In Thomas v. General Motors Acceptance Corp., 288

F.3d 305, 306 (7th Cir. 2002), we remarked that “dismissal

with prejudice may have been the only feasible sanction for

this perjury designed to defraud the government. Dismissal

without prejudice would have been no sanction at all, unless

perchance the statute of limitations had run in the interim,

which it must not have done or the plaintiff would not be

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6 No. 15‐3743   

complaining about the fact that his suit was dismissed with

prejudice. And a monetary sanction would probably be dif‐

ficult to collect from a litigant assiduous in concealing as‐

sets.”

The plaintiff’s contentions that he did not know the bal‐

ance of his trust account and that $10 was his best guess are

implausible. A week before he filed his in forma pauperis peti‐

tion he had spent about $30 on postage and copying, and

two weeks after the filing he had spent $500 on Christmas

presents and $100 on clothing and books. He was, as the dis‐

trict court noted, “regularly dipping into his law firm trust

account for his own use in the months leading up to and the

weeks immediately following his [in forma pauperis] petition

filing ... [and] fails to explain ... why he felt comfortable

with spending hundreds of dollars from this account with‐

out knowing how much money was in it.”

The judge said that he had “considered alternative sanc‐

tions, including dismissal without prejudice. But anything

less than dismissal with prejudice would be inappropriate in

this case. Even supposing it is possible for this Court to only

fine Plaintiff, fines would not be a fitting remedy because

Plaintiff appears to now be impoverished, having long since

spent all the money in his law firm trust account. A verbal or

written warning would fail to do justice given Plaintiff’s per‐

sistent disregard for the truth in this case. Dismissal without

prejudice would seem little punishment at all as Plaintiff

could then simply refile with a new, meritorious, in forma

pauperis petition. If Plaintiff’s time for filing has passed, dis‐

missing without prejudice would be equivalent to dismiss‐

ing with prejudice. Dismissal with prejudice also sends a

strong message to all litigants, particularly to those within

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No. 15‐3743 7

the prison population, that dishonesty to the court will not

be tolerated.”

One issue remains to be discussed, though it is collateral

to the merits of the dismissal. In response to the plaintiff’s

initial request that the district judge recruit a lawyer for him,

the judge asked a Wisconsin law firm to evaluate the case

and advise him whether it warranted the investment of time

and resources required to prosecute to judgment a claim for

medical malpractice and deliberate indifference. The firm

responded that there was no clear medical negligence in the

case and that it would not be willing to invest the time and

resources necessary to prosecute the case and that other,

similar law firms would probably react the same way since

the cost of an expert witness could easily exceed $100,000

through trial and the firm would have to spend hundreds of

hours on the case.

The law firm’s response induced the judge not to recruit

counsel for the plaintiff at that time—a decision of no conse‐

quence, however, in view of the plaintiff’s misconduct that

precipitated the dismissal of his suit with prejudice. But we

question the wisdom of a judge’s seeking advice about a case

from a law firm that is not representing any of the parties to

it, at least without first checking for conflicts of interest. (A

firm representing a party will of course “advise” the judge

without being asked.)

There is a risk of a conflict of interest in those circum‐

stances, as this case illustrates. From its response, the law

firm from which the district judge sought advice appears to

be active in malpractice litigation, which suggests that it may

have had a conflict of interest with the plaintiff in telling the

judge in effect that no reputable firm would take on such a

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case on behalf of this plaintiff; the firm may wish on behalf

of its clients to discourage such litigation. Indeed the judge

remarked that “based on the assessment of his case by a law

firm experienced in medical matters, it appears certain that

were it not for the fact he is a prisoner, Plaintiff would most

likely not have an attorney assisting him in the case.” More‐

over, a further and more direct conflict of interest may have

been created by the fact that the law firm had represented an

opponent of our plaintiff in a previous suit, a fact the district

judge seems to have been unaware of.

No matter. For the reasons set forth earlier in this opinion

the judgment of the district court must be, and so it is,

AFFIRMED.

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