Opinion ID: 442925
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Limitation on In Forma Pauperis Filings

Text: 61 To put an end to Franklin's abuse of the court's IFP procedure, the district court entered an order limiting Franklin to six in IFP filings per year. After six filings, Franklin must pay the applicable filing fees. We review this order under the abuse of discretion standard. See Weller v. Dickson, 314 F.2d 598, 600 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 845, 84 S.Ct. 97, 11 L.Ed.2d 72 (1963). 62 The district court's order is an extraordinary sanction. Franklin's filings have been equally as extraordinary. 13 A large portion of his filings have been undeniably frivolous, such as claims that his civil rights were violated by: a television announcer calling an 18-wheel truck a 14-wheeler; a prison officer over-watering the lawn; the prison's use of aluminum pans for baking desserts; and a federal regulation requiring seat-belts for automobiles but not for horses. The district court is understandably weary of Mr. Franklin. Prisoners, however, have a constitutional right of access to the courts, however. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1494, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). The right to access is not absolute, but it must be adequate, effective and meaningful. Id. at 822, 97 S.Ct. at 1495. We recognize that an indigent may not be required to pay a filing fee to file a habeas corpus petition, Smith v. Bennett, 365 U.S. 708, 81 S.Ct. 895, 6 L.Ed.2d 39 (1961), nor be required to pay to file a civil action involving a fundamental constitutional right. Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 91 S.Ct. 780, 28 L.Ed.2d 113 (1971) (filing fee for divorce). This court has held, however, that court permission to proceed in forma pauperis is itself a matter of privilege and not right; denial of in forma pauperis status does not violate the applicant's right to due process. Weller, 314 F.2d at 600. 63 An order limiting a prisoner's access to the courts must be designed to preserve his right to adequate, effective, and meaningful access, Bounds, 430 U.S. at 822, 97 S.Ct. at 1495, while protecting the court from abuse. We agree with the district court that six free filings per year should be adequate access, but we cannot be certain that it will. If a request is made for the filing of additional cases beyond the number prescribed by the court, Franklin must be afforded an opportunity to make a showing that the limitation to six filings is prejudicial because inclusion of these claims by amendment of his existing claims is not possible. If such a showing is made, the district court must amend its order. This will avoid the constitutionally questionable conclusive presumption that all of Franklin's subsequent submissions are frivolous or malicious. See In re Green, 669 F.2d 779 (D.C.Cir.1981) (order barring all further IFP filings as sanction for abuse violates fourteenth amendment). 64 Furthermore, for any additional filings beyond the six provided in the district court's order, we impose the following requirement: 65 Petitioner may not file any civil action without leave of court. In seeking leave of court, petitioner must certify that the claims he wishes to present are new claims never before raised and disposed of on the merits by any federal court. Upon failure to certify or upon a false certification, petitioner may be found in contempt of court and punished accordingly. 66 In re Green, 669 F.2d 779, 787 (D.C.Cir.1981). Although this requirement places the burden upon Franklin to show that his claim has merit, it will not deny Franklin access to the courts on any nonfrivolous claim. II Dismissal for Failure to Prosecute 67 A district court may sua sponte dismiss a case for failure to prosecute. Link v. Wabash Railroad, 370 U.S. 626, 633, 82 S.Ct. 1386, 1390, 8 L.Ed.2d 734 (1962). Cf. Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(b) (defendant may move to dismiss for plaintiff's failure to prosecute or to comply with court order). This court, however, will not overturn a district court's dismissal pursuant to Rule 41(b) unless the district judge clearly abused his discretion. Nealey v. Transportacion Maritima Mexicana, S.A., 662 F.2d 1275, 1278 (9th Cir.1980); Anderson v. Air West, Inc., 542 F.2d 522, 524 (9th Cir.1976). 68 To determine whether to dismiss a case for failure to prosecute, [t]he district court must weigh its need to manage its docket, the public interest in expeditious resolution of litigation, and the risk of prejudice to the defendants against the policy favoring disposition of cases on their merits. Mir v. Fosburg, 706 F.2d 916, 918 (9th Cir.1983). A case will be dismissed only for an unreasonable failure to prosecute, however. Nealey, 662 F.2d at 1280. The plaintiff has the burden of persuading the court of the reasonableness of his delay and the lack of prejudice to the defendant. The burden of producing evidence of prejudice, however, shifts to the defendant where the plaintiff presents a non-frivolous excuse for his inaction. Id. at 1280-1281. Before the court dismisses an action with prejudice for failure to prosecute, it must also warn the plaintiff that he or she is risking dismissal. Tolbert v. Leighton, 623 F.2d 585, 587 (9th Cir.1980). The court must then explore all reasonable alternatives to dismissal with prejudice. Mir, 706 F.2d at 919; Tolbert, 623 F.2d at 587 (9th Cir.1980). 69 The district court dismissed 11 of Franklin's cases for failure to prosecute. On December 9, 1982, the court ordered Franklin to serve process in all his pending actions by February 15, 1983 or it would dismiss them. Franklin responded on March 9, 1983, requesting the judge to appoint new counsel for him and to extend the time in which to serve process. The court denied Franklin's motions and dismissed. 70 83-3939, 83-3944, 83-3945, 83-3947, 83-3948, and 83-3949 71 Franklin v. Murphy, No. 83-3939 (Civ. No. 79-634), Franklin v. Yamhill County, No. 83-3944 (Civ. No. 79-990), Franklin v. Yamhill County, No. 83-3945 (Civ. No. 79-991), Franklin v. Cupp, No. 83-3947 (Civ. No. 79-1051), Franklin v. Cupp, No. 83-3948 (Civ. No. 79-1160), and Franklin v. Yamhill County, No. 83-3949 (Civ. No. 79-1322) were originally dismissed by the district court before service of process, but were reversed by this court on appeal and remanded in Franklin I. The cases were reinstated by the district court in January 1982. Franklin failed to serve process on any of the defendants. 72 The district court did not clearly abuse its discretion by dismissing these cases in which Franklin had not yet served process. The court warned Franklin that they would be dismissed and it considered all reasonable alternatives. See Tolbert, 623 F.2d at 587. Although the court did not have any evidence of actual prejudice to the defendants, it correctly ruled that Franklin had the burden of persuasion on that issue and that he did not meet it. 14 As this court has noted, [d]elay in serving a complaint is a particularly serious failure to prosecute. Anderson v. Air West, Inc., 542 F.2d 522, 525 (9th Cir.1976). The court, therefore, did not abuse its discretion. 83-3940, 83-3941, and 83-3946 73 The court also dismissed these three cases, Franklin v. Hays, No. 83-3940 (Civ. No. 79-985), Franklin v. Billings, No. 83-3941 (Civ. No. 79-986), and Franklin v. Yamhill County, No. 83-3946 (Civ. No. 79-992), for failure to prosecute, although Franklin had served process on at least one defendant in each case. 15 Because we find that the district court did not warn Franklin that he was risking dismissal on these specific cases, we reverse and remand. 74 This district court had previously dismissed these three cases; it reopened them on its own motion on January 11, 1982 after this court's decision in Franklin I. Although the court warned Franklin that he risked dismissal if he did not serve process in his cases by February 15, 1983, it did not warn him that he must take some additional action on the cases in which he had served process. 75 Dismissal is a harsh penalty and should be imposed only in extreme circumstances. Raiford v. Pounds, 640 F.2d 944, 945 (9th Cir.1981) (per curiam). In Tolbert v. Leighton, 623 F.2d 585, 587 (9th Cir.1980), we held that a court abused its discretion by dismissing an action that was only seven months old without warning the plaintiff's attorney that he risked dismissal by failing to appear at a status conference. See also Witt v. United States, 681 F.2d 1144, 1149 (9th Cir.1982) (abuse of discretion to dismiss action for failure to file a memorandum of points and authorities without warning or consideration of alternatives). The district court did not give Franklin sufficient warning that his inaction risked dismissal of the cases in which he had served process. 76 The district court also erred by finding that these cases were not young. See Tolbert, 623 F.2d at 587. The court found these cases to be old because they had been filed three to four years before the dismissal. The relevant time period in determining failure to prosecute, however, is the period of delay caused by the plaintiff, not the time from the filing of the complaint. See Mir v. Fosburg, 706 F.2d 916, 919 (9th Cir.1983); Nealey, 662 F.2d at 1280 (unavoidable delay is not basis for dismissal). The only period of delay attributable to Franklin is the 16 months between reinstatement of the case and its dismissal. The cases thus were not sufficiently old to justify their dismissal. Because the court failed to warn Franklin that some action was necessary to avoid dismissal of these cases, and because the period of delay attributable to Franklin was not long. We therefore find that the court abused its discretion by dismissing cases 83-3940, 83-3941, and 83-3946 against the defendants who had been served. 83-3950 77 In Franklin v. Thompson, No. 83-3950 (Civ. No. 80-216), Franklin sued Wanda Catt, an employee of the County Clerk's Office, and Robert Thompson, the prison librarian, for allegedly preventing him from timely filing a civil rights complaint. He later added the State of Oregon and Yamhill County as defendants. Franklin, however, served process on Thompson. 78 The district court only dismissed the action for failure to prosecute. We affirm as to defendants Catt, the State, and the County because Franklin had not served them with process after the court ordered him to do so. 79 We also affirm the dismissal as to defendant Thompson, but not on the grounds of failure to prosecute. This court may affirm on any basis presented by the record. Compton v. Ide, 732 F.2d 1429, 1433 (9th Cir.1984); Mollnow v. Carlton, 716 F.2d 627, 628 n. 1 (9th Cir.1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 1595, 80 L.Ed.2d 126 (1984). We therefore affirm the dismissal of the action against Thompson on the ground that Franklin's allegations against Thompson are too insubstantial to create federal subject matter jurisdiction. See Franklin I, 662 F.2d at 1342-43. 80 Franklin removed from his complaint his allegation that Thompson had caused him to lose a $3 million lawsuit. Thus, although Franklin did not dismiss Thompson from the action, his complaint does not allege that Thompson engaged in any violation of Franklin's constitutional rights, and therefore does not state jurisdictional facts. Franklin I, 662 F.2d at 1342. Civ. No. 79-1158 81 In Franklin v. Cupp, Civ. No. 79-1158, 16 Franklin sued the prison psychiatrist, Dr. Wiesert, and the security sergeant, Sergeant Walker, for denying him exercise while he was in the Psychiatric Security Unit. Franklin did not serve process on either defendant. The district court dismissed the action for failure to prosecute. 17 We affirm. 82 This action was remanded in Franklin I. The district court reinstated it in January 1982. Franklin was warned in December 1982 that he risked dismissal by his failure to serve process on the defendants. We recognize that Franklin may not have served the correct defendants in this action because he was confused by the large number of lawsuits he had pending. However, even a pro se litigant must take some responsibility in the pursuit of his legal actions. We therefore hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion by dismissing this action. III Summary Judgments 83 Summary judgment is proper where there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), Ybarra v. Reno Thunderbird Mobile Home Village, 723 F.2d 675, 677 (9th Cir.1984). We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing the evidence and the inferences therefrom in the manner most favorable to the party against whom summary judgment was granted. Ward by and through Ward v. United States Department of Labor, 726 F.2d 516, 517 (1984). Further, because Franklin is pro se, the court must liberally construe his pleadings. Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652 (1972). To avoid a summary judgment, however, Franklin may not rely solely on the allegations in his pleadings, he must present some significant probative evidence tending to support the complaint. General Business Systems v. North American Philips Corp., 699 F.2d 965, 971 (9th Cir.1983); quoting First National Bank v. Cities Service Co., 391 U.S. 253, 290, 88 S.Ct. 1575, 1593, 20 L.Ed.2d 569 (1968). 83-3942 84 In Franklin v. Yamhill County, No. 83-3942 (Civ. No. 79-987), Franklin sued Yamhill County and Billings, a jail employee, for violating his civil rights by allegedly removing and copying his personal papers. 18 The court granted summary judgment for the County and Billings. We affirm. The affidavits submitted by the County and Billings state that they removed Franklin's papers at his request and did not copy them. Franklin did not file a response. Thus, no material fact is at issue and summary judgment was proper. 83-3943 85 In Franklin v. Yamhill County, No. 83-3943 (Civ. No. 79-988), Franklin sued Yamhill County and Officer Kowing for denying him regular exercise while he was held in segregated confinement in the Yamhill County jail. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants. 19 We affirm. The affidavits submitted by Kowing and the County show that the staff gave Franklin an opportunity to exercise regularly but that he chose to remain in his cell. No material issues of fact exist and the defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. IV Habeas Corpus 86 The district court dismissed two of Franklin's three habeas corpus petitions as repetitive. It permitted Franklin to amend the remaining petition to include any non-repetitive claims. Franklin apparently did not amend and he now appeals the dismissals. 87 The trial court does not have to entertain piecemeal litigation or collateral proceedings advanced with the purpose to vex, harass, or delay. Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 18, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 1078, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1962). The district court therefore did not err by dismissing Franklin's repetitious habeas claims. V Appointment of Counsel 88 After the district court relieved Franklin's appointed attorney of his responsibilities, Franklin moved that the court appoint him new counsel. The court denied the motion. We review the district court's decision under the abuse of discretion standard. See United States v. McQuade, 647 F.2d 938, 940 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 958, 102 S.Ct. 1470, 71 L.Ed.2d 677 (1982). 89 A motion for appointment of counsel under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1915 is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court and is granted only in exceptional circumstances. McQuade, 647 F.2d at 940. Franklin failed to cooperate with his first appointed attorney. Most of his actions were frivolous. He did not show exceptional circumstances to justify the appointment of another attorney. The court did not abuse its discretion by denying Franklin's motion. 90 AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART.