Opinion
Case: 1:14-cv-02091
12-05-2014
Pauletta Higgins, Plaintiff, v. D.C. Civil Actions Small Claims, Defendant.
Assigned To : Unassigned
Assign. Date : 12/12/2014
Description: Pro Se Gen. Civil
MEMORANDUM OPINION
This matter is before the Court on review of the plaintiff's pro se complaint and application to proceed in forma pauperis. The application will be granted and the case will be dismissed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) (requiring dismissal of a case upon a determination that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted).
Plaintiff is a District of Columbia resident. She sues the Small Claims and Conciliation Branch of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for allegedly refusing to file her "legal paper base[d] on facts of abuse of discreation [sic]." Not. of Compl.; see Compl. Attachments (Superior Court forms). The D.C. Superior Court is an entity within the District of Columbia that cannot be sued in its own name. See Kundrat v. District of Columbia, 106 F. Supp. 2d 1, 4-8 (D.D.C. 2000). In addition, plaintiff has not alleged sufficient facts or requested any relief to warrant substituting the District of Columbia as the proper defendant. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a) (requiring complaints to contain "(1) a short and plain statement of the grounds for the court's jurisdiction[,] (2) a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief[,] and (3) a demand for the relief sought"); Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (a complaint must contain "more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation") (citing Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)); Aktieselskabet AF 21. Nov. 2001 v. Fame Jeans, Inc., 525 F.3d 8, 16 n.4 (D.C. Cir. 2008) ("We have never accepted 'legal conclusions cast in the form of factual allegations' because a complaint needs some information about the circumstances giving rise to the claims.") (quoting Kowal v. MCI Commc'ns Corp., 16 F.3d 1271, 1276 (D.C. Cir. 1994)). Hence, this case will be dismissed. A separate Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion. Date: December 5, 2014
/s/_________
United States District Judge