Opinion
Civil Action No. 07-1830 (JR).
December 7, 2007
MEMORANDUM
This matter is before the Court on the motion of Region's Bank, Morgan Keegan and Bruce Weatherford to dismiss, asserting numerous grounds for dismissal, nearly all of them well taken. Plaintiff appears pro se. The matter has been fully briefed. In his response, plaintiff concedes that defendant Keegan must be dismissed because the civil rights statutes do not admit of respondeat superior liability. That concession, as Region's Bank points out, is fatal to plaintiff's claim against the bank, which would be liable, if at all, only because of the actions of its agent, Bruce Weatherford. Defendants are also correct that 42 U.S.C. § 1988 confers no substantive rights; that there was nothing in plaintiff's complaint or his response to the motion properly invoking the D.C. Longarm Statute, D.C. Code Ann. § 13-423; that plaintiff's bare allegations of conspiracy are insufficient to establish personal jurisdiction over either the bank or Mr. Weatherford; and that in any event, and approaching the merits more closely, plaintiff's claim is based principally on testimony given against him by Mr. Weatherford and the bank, but it is clear that trial testimony cannot be the basis of § 1983 liability. An appropriate order accompanies this memorandum.