HUGH LAWSON, Senior District Judge.
Before the Court is Defendant Bill Gray's Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 29), Amended Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 35), and Second Amended Motion to Dismiss. (Doc. 37). For the reasons discussed below, the Court denies Defendant's two amended motions. The Court grants in part and denies in part Defendant's initial Motion to Dismiss.
Plaintiff, a Chinese citizen, entered the United States via the Texas Border on August 19, 2013. The United States Border Patrol apprehended Plaintiff and charged her with inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Immigration officials then transferred Plaintiff to the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia for detention pending removal proceedings.
Plaintiff filed this civil rights action against the United States and various agents and officers of the United States in both their individual and official capacities. She also names as a defendant Bill Gray, Warden at the Irwin County Detention Center, where Plaintiff was held while awaiting removal. Plaintiff alleges Defendants collectively committed tortious acts in violation of her constitutional and statutory rights, namely by wrongfully and unreasonably detaining her for a prolonged period of time in violation of her due process rights.
Defendant moves to dismiss all claims raised against him in Plaintiff's Complaint on two grounds. First, Defendant argues that Plaintiff's Complaint should be dismissed for failure to effect service under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(5). Alternatively, Defendant moves under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) to dismiss this action for Plaintiff's failure to state any claim against Defendant.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m) provides,
Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(m).
It is undisputed that Plaintiff failed to serve Defendant within the required time period. Plaintiff initiated this lawsuit on August 29, 2014. She did not effectuate service on Defendant until January 21, 2015, 25 days after the running of the 120 days mandated by Rule 4(m). Accordingly, the Court must determine whether Plaintiff has demonstrated good cause for the failure that would warrant the Court extending the time for service.
"Good cause exists only when some outside factor, such as reliance on faulty advice, rather than inadvertence or negligence, prevented service."
Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate good cause. Plaintiff's first attempt at serving Defendant occurred on October 3, 2014, when Plaintiff sent a copy of the Complaint to the Irwin County Detention Center by certified mail. (Doc. 10). Plaintiff also provided a copy by certified mail to the Civil Process Clerk at the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia. After receiving notice from the United States Attorney's office that the documents received by that office did not contain the required summons form (Doc. 16), on October 14, 2014, Plaintiff again sent a copy of the summons for each of the named defendants along with a copy of the Complaint by certified mail to the Civil Process Clerk. (Doc. 17).
Rule 4(i)(2) instructs that service upon an employee of the United States sued in his official capacity requires the plaintiff to serve the United States, which may be accomplished by sending a copy of the summons and complaint by registered or certified mail to the civil process clerk, and to send a copy by registered or certified mail to the employee. Defendant Gray is the warden of the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia and not an employee of the United States or any of its agencies. Accordingly, Plaintiff's attempt at serving Defendant in this manner failed as a matter of law.
In the absence of a waiver of service, both the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Georgia's Rules of Civil Procedure required Plaintiff to serve this particular Defendant personally. Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(e); O.C.G.A. § 9-11-4(e). The only explanation offered by Plaintiff for not properly serving Defendant was a "misapprehension of the state rules of service." (Doc. 31, p. 3). The rules for services are not complicated, and the Court finds this excuse unavailing.
Even though Plaintiff failed to present evidence of good cause, the Court may in its discretion extend the time for service.
Subsequent to receiving personal service of Plaintiff's Complaint, Defendant filed two amendments to his motion, showing the Court that Plaintiff did not provide Defendant a copy of the summons along with the Complaint and so had not fully complied with the service requirements. (Docs. 35, 37).
Plaintiff's counsel shows that on January 12, 2015, his office transmitted a summons and complaint to be served upon Defendant by a certified process server. (Doc. 31-2, p. 2). The process server then executed an Affidavit of Service attesting that on January 21, 2015, she personally served Defendant with both a summons and complaint. (Doc. 33). Defendant provided an opposing affidavit in which he testifies that while the process server handed him a copy of the Complaint, the summons form was not included. (Doc. 37-1). The parties now essentially ask the Court to make a credibility determination based on competing affidavits. However, it is clear to the Court that, while belated, Plaintiff attempted substantially to comply with the service requirements by providing a copy of the summons form to Defendant along with the Complaint, and there is no evidence that Defendant has been prejudiced in any way from the defects in service. Accordingly, the Court denies Defendant's motions to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(5) for insufficiency of service of process.
Defendant moves to dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint for failure to state a claim under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). According to Defendant, Plaintiff requests relief for actions allegedly taken by the named federal defendants, and Plaintiff points to no action taken by Defendant. Thus, her Complaint should be dismissed.
A Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss requires the court to accept "all well-pleaded facts . . . as true, and the reasonable inferences therefrom are construed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff."
In her recitation of the relevant facts, Plaintiff does not address the specific conduct of any one defendant, instead referring to all of the seven named defendants collectively as "Defendants." Her delineation of her claims for relief is no more enlightening. Plaintiff's Complaint asserts five causes of action: (1) a
Plaintiff's Complaint fails to make any specific allegations pertaining to Defendant, setting forth mere conclusions with no factual substance. For example, in Paragraph 53, Plaintiff states, "Plaintiff's case as handled by Defendants Shirley, Hampton and Gray presented them with difficult choices of the sort that training and supervision by the Supervisory Defendants would have made less difficult, and the wrong choices, the sort of which Defendants Shirley, Hampton and Gray made in this case, will frequently cause the deprivation of one's constitutional rights." (Doc. 1, p. 8). Plaintiff makes no effort to explain what "choices" she deems to be "difficult" or the "wrong choices" or what or whose constitutional rights were violated as a result of these unidentified "choices." Nor does she explain how Defendant Gray played any role in any decision making relating to Plaintiff's ongoing detention.
In sum, the most the Court learns about Defendant in the course of reviewing Plaintiff's Complaint is that he served as the warden of the prison where Plaintiff was detained during the pendency of her immigration proceedings. Plaintiff has stated no cognizable claims against Defendant. Accordingly, the Court grants Defendant's motion to dismiss.
The Court finds in its discretion that under the circumstances here illustrated extension of the time for service is appropriate. Accordingly, the Court denies Defendant Gray's motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(5) for insufficient service. (Docs. 29, 35, 37). However, upon review of Plaintiff's Complaint, the Court concludes that Plaintiff has failed to state a claim for relief against this Defendant. The Court thus grants Defendant's motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6). (Doc. 29). The case is dismissed, and the Clerk is directed to enter Judgment in favor of Defendant.