Stanley B. Daniels v. Sheriff of Hendry County Jail, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida dismissed Stanley Byron Daniels's fourth substantially identical 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint concerning injuries allegedly caused by a desk collapsing in his Hendry County Jail cell. The court held that the complaint failed to state a claim and alternatively was barred by res judicata because Daniels's prior complaints asserting the same claims had been dismissed on the merits. The dismissal was with prejudice as frivolous and for failure to state a claim.

Holdings

1. The complaint failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted because it repeated the pleading deficiencies identified in Daniels I, Daniels II, and Daniels III and continued to assert negligence and medical-malpractice theories without facts establishing a constitutional violation.
2. The complaint was alternatively barred by res judicata because Daniels had already filed three virtually identical complaints against the same defendants concerning the same operative facts, and the earlier dismissals included adjudications on the merits for res judicata purposes.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the fourth substantially identical complaint stated a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or otherwise stated a claim on which relief could be granted.
2. Whether the action was barred by res judicata because Daniels had previously litigated substantially identical claims against the same defendants.
3. Whether the complaint should be dismissed as frivolous under the prisoner-screening statutes.

Disposition

dismissed