Court Opinion

ID: 9444918
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:15:48.656762+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:03.854938
License: Public Domain

HASTIE, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
Concurring in the court’s disposition of this appeal, I wish to repeat the thought expressed by Judge Kalodner and me in United States ex rel. Darcy v. Handy, 3 Cir., 1953, 203 F.2d 407, 428-429, where we said of an analogous situation that “procedure is flexible enough so that a district judge faced with unclear or inadequately informative pleadings may require that the relator amend or supplement his petition to provide a clear statement of what, if anything, he proposes to show beyond that which already appears in the record * *
If a district court dismisses out of hand such general allegations as we have here, whether appearing in a habeas corpus petition or a motion under § 2255 of Title 28, a court of appeals may be constrained to vacate the order because of the possibility that what has been charged, even in a vague and unsatisfactory way, can be substantiated. Yet, it often turns out that the petitioner has nothing of consequence to support the general charge. For the early discovery and clear establishment that such is the case, preliminary inquiry by the district court concerning the factual basis of the general charge and the nature of the evidence thought to support it will be very useful. The inability of the moving party to make such a preliminary showing when so directed by the court will often provide a proper and adequate basis for dismissing a Section 2255 motion or a habeas corpus petition. Thus, the procedure herein suggested is likely to have real value as a time saver, without denial of essential justice, where the claim seems vague and of doubtful merit from the beginning, but is not clearly bad on its face. Of course, if a substantial case is revealed, trial of disputed issues of fact must proceed in normal course.