Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Gage v. Somerset Cnty.

Civil Action No. 18-272 (CKK)·Attorney: *54Thomas I. Gage, Warren, NJ, pro se., Jay B. Bohn, Scotch Plains, NJ, pro se., COLLEEN KOLLAR-KOTELLY, United States District Judge *55Defendant Jay B. Bohn, proceeding pro se , moves for dismissal of himself from this action for lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue, and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The Court need proceed no further than the venue issue. Upon consideration of the briefing,1 the relevant legal authorities, and the record as a whole, the Court GRANTS Defendant Bohn's [5] Motion to Dismiss Complaint Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) (2), (3) and (6) ("Motion to Dismiss"), and, in an exercise of its discretion, shall DISMISS all claims against Defendant Bohn due to improper venue., The Court shall recite only those few allegations in the [1] Complaint that are necessary to the resolution of Defendant Bohn's Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff Thomas I. Gage, who is also proceeding pro se , has filed this suit against a number of public entities and current or former officials in New Jersey, as well as Defendant Bohn, a private attorney.2 Plaintiff's thirty-eight count Complaint pursues a variety of causes of action that allegedly "arose from an attempt of Plaintiff to expose fraudulent documents that have been used on August 8, 2011, to steal Plaintiff's private property at: 51 Hillcrest Blvd, Warren, NJ." Compl., ECF No. 1, ¶ 3. The Complaint is not a model of clarity, but as best the Court can discern, Plaintiff objects to an alleged series of actions taken by state and local officials and Defendant Bohn in response to his opposition to a real estate development called Sleepy Hollow in Warren, NJ. See generally id. ¶¶ 4, 5, 29, 32. Defendant Bohn has moved to dismiss this case pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(2), (3), and (6). Upon conclusion of briefing, this motion is ripe for resolution., When presented with a motion to dismiss for improper venue under Rule 12(b)(3), the Court "accepts the plaintiff's well-pled factual allegations regarding venue as true, draws all reasonable inferences from those allegations in the plaintiff's favor and resolves any factual conflicts in the plaintiff's favor." James v. Verizon Servs. Corp. , 639 F.Supp.2d 9, 11 (D.D.C. 2009). "The court, however, need not accept the plaintiff's legal conclusions as true." Id. "Because it is the plaintiff's obligation to institute the action in a permissible forum, the plaintiff usually bears the burden of establishing that venue is proper." Freeman v. Fallin , 254 F.Supp.2d 52, 56 (D.D.C. 2003). "If the [p]laintiff is proceeding pro se , however, the factual allegations contained in his complaint will be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings." Akers v. Gutierrez , Civ. Action No. 07cv266 (RJL), 2007 WL 1541500, at *1 (D.D.C. May 23, 2007).3 "Unless there are pertinent factual disputes to resolve, a challenge to venue presents a pure question of law." Williams v. GEICO Corp. , 792 F.Supp.2d 58, 62 (D.D.C. 2011)., "The district court of a district in which is filed a case laying venue in the wrong division or district shall dismiss, or if it be in the interest of justice, transfer such case to any district or division in which it could have been brought." 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a). Before dismissing a case for want of proper venue, a district court should consider whether the "interest of justice" standard warrants transfer. See Dugdale v. Ditech Fin., LLC , No. 17-7137, 2018 WL 1391724 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 21, 2018) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a) ; Hayes v. Livermont , 279 F.2d 818, 818 (D.C. Cir. 1960) (per curiam) )., In an exercise of its discretion, the Court also finds that it would not be in the interest of justice to transfer this case to the District of New Jersey. Defendant Bohn's motion suggests that Plaintiff is shopping for a forum amenable to claims similar to, and perhaps the same as, those that have been dismissed by courts in New Jersey. See Def.'s Mot. at 6-12, 17-18 (listing 11 of the prior cases in New Jersey federal and state courts, as well as Delaware federal court that transferred case filed there to New Jersey federal court). Plaintiff fails to rebut that inference., As Defendant Bohn observes, Plaintiff most recently sued in the District of New Jersey substantially the same set of defendants for what appears to be the same Sleepy Hollow-related conduct as he presently pursues in this suit. The court found that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over his claims. Gage v. Somerset Cnty. , Civil Action No. 3:16-cv-3119-BRM-LHG, 2017 WL 436258 (D.N.J. Jan. 31, 2017).4, *58Plaintiff chose to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, rather than to take the opportunity, given to him by the district court, to amend his complaint within thirty days. Order, Gage v. Somerset Cnty. , Civil Action No. 3:16-cv-03119-BRM-LHG, at 1 (D.N.J. Dec. 19, 2017), ECF No. 52. Upon affirmance of the district court's decision, the district court found that Plaintiff no longer had the opportunity to amend his complaint, and accordingly, the court dismissed his case with prejudice. Id. at 2., Plaintiff gives no colorable response to Defendant Bohn's recitation of the string of prior unsuccessful litigations, nor any valid reason to pursue litigation here. Rather, he asserts that he "has lost his confidence to find justice in the District of New Jersey." Pl.'s Opp'n at 4. Suspecting an entire district of the federal court system of being unable to dispense justice is an unsustainable basis for permitting Plaintiff to maintain his suit against Defendant Bohn in this Court. The Court finds that it is unnecessary to entertain the remainder of Plaintiff's arguments, none of which address the standard for laying venue in this Court. This is not a case where Plaintiff mistakenly suspected that venue was proper here, in which case justice could warrant transfer. See Goldlawr, Inc. , 369 U.S. at 467, 82 S.Ct. 913. Dismissal of this action against Defendant Bohn, rather than transfer to the proper venue, is appropriate where Plaintiff offers no valid grounds for pursuing his suit here in the first place. See Stanifer v. Brannan , 564 F.3d 455, 458 (6th Cir. 2009) (affirming dismissal, rather than transfer, where plaintiff had "failed to offer even one reason, plausible or not, for filing in what was obviously the wrong venue-and no reason at all for failing to file in the proper district")., For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendant Jay B. Bohn's [5] Motion to Dismiss Complaint Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) (2), (3) and (6), and, in an exercise of its discretion, shall DISMISS all claims against Defendant Bohn due to improper venue.0 citations·Filed August 21, 2018

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A copy of this Memorandum Opinion shall be mailed to Plaintiff at his address of record. An appropriate Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.

Gage v. Somerset Cnty.