C. LYNWOOD SMITH, Jr., District Judge.
Plaintiff, Pamela T. Johnson, who is proceeding pro se, filed this case on April 26, 2017. She asserts claims against defendants Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., her former employer, and King Management Solutions, the company that manages the apartment complex in which she resides.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b) permits a party to move to dismiss a complaint for, among other reasons, "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). This rule must be read together with Rule 8(a), which requires that a pleading contain only a "short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). While that pleading standard does not require "detailed factual allegations," Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 550 (2007), it does demand "more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citations omitted). As the Supreme Court stated in Iqbal:
Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678-79 (emphasis supplied, second and fourth alterations in original, other alterations supplied).
"`Pro se pleadings are held to a less stringent standard than pleadings drafted by attorneys' and are liberally construed." Bingham v. Thomas, 654 F.3d 1171, 1175 (11th Cir. 2011) (quoting Tannenbaum v. United States, 148 F.3d 1262, 1263 (11th Cir. 1998)). "`Yet even in the case of pro se litigants this leniency does not give a court license to serve as de facto counsel for a party, or to rewrite an otherwise deficient pleading in order to sustain an action.'" Campbell v. Air Jamaica Ltd., 760 F.3d 1165, 1168-69 (11th Cir. 2014) (quoting GJR Investments, Inc. v. County of Escambia, Fla., 132 F.3d 1359, 1369 (11th Cir.1998)).
Plaintiff asserts that employees of King Management Solutions ("King") entered her apartment without permission, and also allowed law enforcement officers to enter the apartment, for the following purposes: causing mold to grow; taking "trinkets"; leaving lights and fans on; planting surveillance cameras; poisoning her toothpaste; emitting dangerous aerosolized gases into the air; putting chemicals in her food; waking her up in the middle of the night; sprinkling "itching powder" on her porch; and marking the walls at eye level. She also asserts that King's employees entered, and allowed law enforcement officials to enter, her automobile for the purposes of tracking her, harassing her, recording her, and removing brake fluid.
In addition, she asserts that employees of defendant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ("Wal-Mart") allowed law enforcement officers to stalk and chemically attack her while she was working as a Wal-Mart pharmacist. After mentioning an alleged FBI conspiracy to a Wal-Mart co-worker, plaintiff was placed on a paid six-week leave of absence, and was required to seek psychological treatment and submit to a psychological examination. That experience caused plaintiff's co-workers to verbally harass and attack her by making her feel as though she had done something wrong.
Plaintiff claims that both defendants have waged "war" on her, and violated a treaty entered into between the United States and the Osage Indian Tribal Nation, of which she is a member. She believes the intent of the harassment she has experienced to be that of causing her to commit suicide.
Plaintiff also claims that her Wal-Mart supervisor threatened her and her job if she spoke about God in the workplace. She also believes her job was threatened after she lodged a complaint with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Plaintiff asserts that defendants' actions, and the wrongful actions of law enforcement agents that defendants have permitted, have violated her rights under the following provisions of the United States Constitution: Article I, Section 8; Article III, Sections 2 & 3; Article IV, Section 2; and Article VI . She also claims violations of her rights under Amendments I, IV, V, VI, VIII, XI, XIII, and XIV of the Constitution.
Defendants argue, and this court agrees, that plaintiff's federal claims against each of them cannot proceed because they are not state actors. 42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides, in pertinent part, that:
"To establish a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a plaintiff must prove (1) a violation of a constitutional right, and (2) that the alleged violation was committed by a person acting under color of state law." Holmes v. Crosby, 418 F.3d 1256, 1258 (11th Cir. 2005) (citing West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48 (1988)). Defendants undisputedly are private companies, and not governmental entities. It also cannot be said for purposes of § 1983 that defendants were "acting under color of state law." A private person or entity acts "under color of" state law if, and only if, his or its "alleged actions are `fairly attributable to the State.'" Harvey v. Harvey, 949 F.2d 1127, 1130 (11th Cir. 1992) (quoting Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 937 (1982)).
Harvey, 949 F.2d at 1130 (footnote omitted, ellipsis and first alteration in original, second alteration and emphasis supplied).
Willis v. University Health Services, Inc., 993 F.2d 837, 840 (11th Cir. 1993) (alteration in original, emphasis supplied).
Plaintiff's complaint does not contain any allegations that would support a claim for relief under any of these tests. Instead, plaintiff only alleges that defendants acted in their private capacities as her property manager and employer, respectively. Moreover, even though plaintiff asserts that defendants' employees allowed (or even enabled) law enforcement officers to stalk and chemically assault her, and to trespass on her property, there is no indication that either defendant's functions were sufficiently intertwined with those of government actors as to create a joint enterprise, or that any government officials have coerced or encouraged defendants to violate the Constitution, or that either defendant was carrying out functions traditionally reserved to the government. As the Eleventh Circuit has acknowledged, "`[m]ere approval of or acquiescence in the initiatives of a private party is not sufficient. . . .'" NBC, 860 F.2d at 1025 (quoting Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U.S. 991, 1004 (1982) (alteration supplied). Accordingly, neither defendant was acting "under color of state law" at the time of the events leading to plaintiff's complaint, and neither can be subjected to suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Additionally, even if defendants could be considered state actors for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, plaintiff's claims still should be dismissed as implausible and frivolous. The Eleventh Circuit held in Cofield v. Alabama Public Service Commission, 936 F.2d 512 (11th Cir. 1991), that "a district court may dismiss a case for frivolity only when the legal claim is indisputably meritless, the facts are far-fetched or baseless, or both." Id. at 515. The Cofield decision addressed the claims of a pro se plaintiff proceeding in forma pauperis pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915,
Rolle v. Barkett, No. 410-CV-00153-MP-AK, 2010 WL 2402901, at *1-2 (N.D. Fla. June 15, 2010) (Paul, J.) (second alteration supplied, first alteration and ellipsis in original).
Similarly, here, plaintiff's conclusory allegations are clearly baseless, and her claims are frivolous. Because dismissal here will not be sua sponte, but upon motion of the defendants, plaintiff has been provided even more process than the plaintiff in Rolle. There is no reason to require defendants to expend additional time and money defending against claims that cannot succeed. Moreover, there is no reason to allow plaintiff the opportunity to amend her complaint, because any amendment would be futile.
To the extent that plaintiff's complaint can be construed as asserting state law claims against defendants, jurisdiction over those claims would be based upon 28 U.S.C. § 1367, the statute governing supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims. In cases where the court's jurisdiction is based solely upon a federal question, the district court has discretion to entertain state claims that are "supplemental" to the federal claim. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). The district court may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction when:
28 U.S.C. § 1367(c) (alteration and emphasis supplied). The Supreme Court added a gloss to this statutory language in Carnegie-Mellon University v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343 (1988), when observing that
Id. at 349-50 (alteration and emphasis supplied) (citing United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 726-27 (1966)). "[I]n the usual case in which all federal-law claims are eliminated before trial, the balance of factors to be considered under the pendent [now supplemental] jurisdiction doctrine — judicial economy, convenience, fairness, and comity — will point toward declining to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims." Carnegie-Mellon, 484 U.S. at 350 n.7 (alterations supplied); see also L.A. Draper & Son v. Wheelabrator-Frye, Inc., 735 F.2d 414, 428 (11th Cir. 1984) (stating that "if the federal claims are dismissed prior to trial, Gibbs strongly encourages or even requires dismissal of state claims") (emphasis supplied).
Here, because all of plaintiff's federal claims have been eliminated, this court will decline supplemental jurisdiction over any remaining state law claims, and will exercise its discretion to dismiss those claims.
In accordance with the foregoing, it is ORDERED that both motions to dismiss are GRANTED, and all of plaintiff's claims against all defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 are DISMISSED with prejudice. Any state law claims are DISMISSED without prejudice to plaintiff's right to re-file them in an appropriate state court. Costs are taxed to plaintiff. The Clerk is directed to close this file.
28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2). On the date of the Eleventh Circuit's decision in Cofield, the relevant language was found in subsection (d) of 28 U.S.C. § 1915. See Cofield, 936 F.2d at 515 ("A district judge, under the statute, `may dismiss [a] case . . . if satisfied that the action is frivolous or malicious.'") (quoting 28 U.S.C.A. § 1915(d)) (alteration and ellipsis in original); see also Rolle v. Barkett, No. 410-CV-00153-MP-AK, 2010 WL 2402901, at *1 (N.D. Fla. June 15, 2010) ("28 U.S.C. § 1915(d) was redesignated § 1915(e) by the Prison Litigation Reform Act.").