Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_06-cv-05298/USCOURTS-cand-3_06-cv-05298-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Charles Muhammad
Plaintiff
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Defendant

Document Text:

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1 Within a span of two weeks, Muhammed has filed a total of eleven lawsuits in this

court. See Muhammad v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, No. 06-4893 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 14, 2006);

Muhammad v. U.S. Dep’t of Transp., No. 06-4893 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 14, 2006); Muhammad

v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy, No. 06-4916 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 15, 2006); Muhammad v. State of

New Mexico, No. 06-4893 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 16, 2006); Muhammad v. State of California,

No. 06-4953 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 16, 2006); Muhammad v. U.S. Dep’t of Hous. & Urban Dev.,

No. 06-5298 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 29, 2006); Muhammad v. Kelly Village Apt., No. 06-5299

(N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 29, 2006); Muhammad v. U.S. Dep’t of Health & Hum Servs., No. 06-

5300 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 29, 2006); Muhammad v. State of Utah, No. 06-5360 (N.D. Cal. filed

Aug. 31, 2006); Muhammad v. 2 N.B.C., No. 06-5361 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 31, 2006);

Muhammad v. Kassig, No. 06-5362 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 31, 2006).

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States District C

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For the Northern District of California

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

CHARLES MUHAMMAD,

Plaintiff,

 v.

US DEPT OF HOUSING AND URBAN

DEVELOPMENT,

Defendant.

 /

No. C 06-05298 CRB

ORDER

Plaintiff Charles Muhammed (“Muhammed”) has filed a complaint against the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”). This lawsuit is one of several

actions recently filed by Muhammed.1 The complaint in this case states that HUD “violated

the following human rights.” It then lists five articles from the United Nations Universal

Declaration of Human Rights. See G.A. Res. 217A (III), arts. 2-6, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess.,

U.N. Doc. A/810 (Dec. 12, 1948). That is Muhammed’s complaint, in its entirety.

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2

Plaintiff has also filed two additional documents in connection with his complaint. 

The first is an application to proceed in forma pauperis. The second is a request for a

restraining order against HUD. In this second document, Muhammed asks this Court to

order HUD “to supply [him] with a home” and to pay for his temporary housing at a cost of

$60.00 per night for a room at Motel 6. He further requests this Court to evict HUD from its

offices due to its “criminal activity” under the “RICO Act.” He demands “that criminal

charges be brought, against the director and his staff, for taking salaries for no work.” 

Finally, he describes an incident at HUD’s offices in which “he was given a list of low cost

apartments” but was told that “HUD had no applications” for housing. He goes on to state

that he has been denied housing “because I am a convicted felon, . . . because I am black, . . .

because I am an [A]merican Indian with only two Inches.” In addition, the request for a

restraining order indicates that Muhammed has “designed a letter to stop a[n] elephant in its

tracks,” and it contains notes about “John Ford F.B.I. Mind Control.”

Under Rule 12(b)(6), “a court need not accept as true unreasonable inferences,

unwarranted deductions of fact, or conclusory legal allegations cast in the form of factual

allegations.” Bureerong v. Uvawas, 922 F. Supp. 1450, 1462 (C.D. Cal. 1996); see also

Brown v. City of Oneonta, 235 F.3d 769, 780 (2d Cir. 2000) (Kearse, C.J., dissenting)

(noting that under Rule 12(b)(6) facts must be taken as true “unless they are fanciful or

delusionary, or . . . they represent only legal conclusions.”); Aulson v. Blanchard, 83 F.3d 1,

3 (1st Cir. 1996) (noting that a court need not “swallow the plaintiff’s invective hook, line,

and sinker; bald assertions, unsupportable conclusions, periphrastic circumlocutions, and the

like need not be credited”).

Moreover, according to Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319 (1989), a court may

dismiss an in forma pauperis complaint sua sponte under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d) when the

claim is “fantastic or delusional.” 490 U.S. at 328. The Neitzke Court noted: “A patently

insubstantial complaint may be dismissed, for example, for want of subject-matter

jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). 490 U.S. 319, 327 n.6 (1989);

see also Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. 528, 536-37 (1974) (noting that federal courts lack

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power to entertain claims that are “so attenuated and unsubstantial as to be absolutely devoid

of merit”); Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 682-83 (1946).

Taken as a whole, Muhammed’s complaint is patently insubstantial. Plaintiff has not

stated a coherent claim against the defendants; indeed, he has alleged no legally significant

facts regarding any action by HUD or its officers at all. The complaint is hereby

DISMISSED with prejudice. 

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: September 11, 2006

 

CHARLES R. BREYER

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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