Opinion ID: 423533
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dismissal Before Service on Defendants.

Text: 12 Zernial cites several cases that he believes state that dismissals before service of process on the defendants are improper. The only Fifth Circuit case he mentions, Carter v. Estelle, 519 F.2d 1136 (5th Cir.1975), is not on point: it reversed the dismissal not because it was entered before the defendant was served, but because it was entered despite the fact that the complaint stated a claim. 13 Zernial has referred us to no other Fifth Circuit authority, and we have found none. He does, however, urge us to rely on a line of Second Circuit cases that are directly on point. Zernial, however, does not seem to understand their import: the cases do not state categorically that such early dismissals are improper, but merely that it is improper to dismiss a nonfrivolous claim so early. See, e.g., Graves v. Olgiati, 550 F.2d 1327, 1328 (2d Cir.1977) (dismissal before service on defendant upheld where complaint falls into that narrow category of cases where ... the constitutional claims asserted are 'patently without merit' ) (quoting Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 683, 66 S.Ct. 773, 776, 90 L.Ed.2d 939 (1946)); Cunningham v. Ward, 546 F.2d 481, 482 (2d Cir.1976) (dismissal of a nonfrivolous claim is untimely when made before answer ...); Mawhinney v. Henderson, 542 F.2d 1, 2 & n. 1 (2d Cir.1976) (reiterating suggestion ... that pro se complaints should not be dismissed prior to service of summons and answer, but reversing dismissal because complaint stated a nonfrivolous claim). Since we find that the dismissal here was proper even under the Second Circuit standard advocated by Zernial, we need not decide whether we would adopt that standard, or a more stringent one, as Fifth Circuit law. 14