Opinion
4:21-cv-260-MW/MJF
07-06-2021
RHONDA FLEMING & KATORIA GREENE, Plaintiffs, v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS, et al., Defendants.
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
Michael J. Frank United States Magistrate Judge
Plaintiffs Rhonda Fleming and Katoria Green, Federal prisoners proceeding pro se, have filed a complaint pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act, Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), and 28 U.S.C. § 2241. (Doc. 1). The complaint alleges that Defendants' policy concerning the housing of transgender inmates violates the Plaintiffs' constitutional rights. Fleming filed a motion to proceed in forma pauperis. (Doc. 2).
Prisoners may not join together in a single civil lawsuit so as to share the mandatory filing fee. Hubbard v. Haley, 262 F.3d 1194, 1198 (11th Cir. 2001). “[T]he intent of Congress in promulgating the [Prison Litigation Reform Act] was to deter frivolous civil actions brought by prisoners by requiring each individual prisoner to pay the full amount of the required fee.” Id. at 1195. The appropriate disposition of a multiple-plaintiff-prisoner action is to dismiss the case without prejudice and require each plaintiff to file a separate complaint in an individual action accompanied by the full filing fee or an application to proceed in forma pauperis. Id. at 1195, 1198; see also Bowens v. Turner Guilford Knight Det., 510 Fed.Appx. 863 (11th Cir. 2013) (affirming district court's dismissal, under Hubbard, of a complaint in which six inmates attempted to join their claims in a single lawsuit). For the reasons set forth above , the undersigned respectfully RECOMMENDS that:
1. This case be DISMISSED without prejudice to each Plaintiff filing a new individual complaint on her own behalf, and paying the full $402.00 fee ($350.00 filing fee and $52.00 administrative fee) or submitting an individual application to proceed in forma pauperis.
2. The clerk of the court close this case file. At Pensacola, Florida this 6th day of July, 2021.
NOTICE TO THE PARTIES
Objections to these proposed findings and recommendations must be filed within fourteen (14) days of the date of the report and recommendation. Any different deadline that may appear on the electronic docket is for the court's internal use only and does not control. An objecting party must serve a copy of its objections upon all other parties. A party who fails to object to the magistrate judge's findings or recommendations contained in a report and recommendation waives the right to challenge on appeal the district court's order based on unobjected-to factual and legal conclusions. See 11th Cir. Rule 3-1; 28 U.S.C. § 636.