Filed: Oct. 27, 2010
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ FILED U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 09-12135 OCTOBER 27, 2010 Non-Argument Calendar JOHN LEY _ CLERK D. C. Docket No. 08-60997-CV-MGC DR. SYROUS KERMANJ, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus JEFFREY GOLDSTEIN, PETER JENSEN, CHARLES SOELLNER, GERALD DONNELLEY, ARUTHER ROSENBURG, et al., Defendants-Appellees. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida _ (October 27, 2010)
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ FILED U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 09-12135 OCTOBER 27, 2010 Non-Argument Calendar JOHN LEY _ CLERK D. C. Docket No. 08-60997-CV-MGC DR. SYROUS KERMANJ, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus JEFFREY GOLDSTEIN, PETER JENSEN, CHARLES SOELLNER, GERALD DONNELLEY, ARUTHER ROSENBURG, et al., Defendants-Appellees. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida _ (October 27, 2010) ..
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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________ FILED
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 09-12135
OCTOBER 27, 2010
Non-Argument Calendar
JOHN LEY
________________________ CLERK
D. C. Docket No. 08-60997-CV-MGC
DR. SYROUS KERMANJ,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
JEFFREY GOLDSTEIN,
PETER JENSEN,
CHARLES SOELLNER,
GERALD DONNELLEY,
ARUTHER ROSENBURG, et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
_________________________
(October 27, 2010)
Before EDMONDSON, BLACK and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Plaintiff-Appellant Dr. Syrous Kermanj, proceeding pro se, appeals the
district court’s dismissal, without prejudice, of his complaint for failure to state a
claim, Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). The court concluded that Plaintiff failed to comply
with Fed.R.Civ.P. 8. No reversible error has been shown; we affirm.
We review de novo the district court’s grant of a motion to dismiss for
failure to state a claim, accepting the allegations in the complaint as true and
construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Harris v. United Auto.
Ins. Group, Inc.,
579 F.3d 1227, 1230 (11th Cir. 2009).1 In addition, we construe
liberally pro se pleadings. Miller v. Donald,
541 F.3d 1091, 1100 (11th Cir. 2008).
Rule (8) requires that a pleading contain a “short and plain statement of the
1
Defendants filed a motion to strike Plaintiff’s complaint in its entirety under
Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(f) because Plaintiff’s factual assertions were so intertwined with scandalous
material as to be indivisible, or, in the alternative, for a more definite statement under
Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(e) because the complaint was so lengthy and disjointed that Defendants could
not meaningfully respond to the allegations. The district court treated the motion as a Rule
12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. Defendants’ motion required the district court to engage in the same
substantive analysis as a Rule 12(b)(6) motion: to determine whether the complaint stated a
claim for relief. See Strategic Income Fund, L.L.C. v. Spear, Leeds & Kellogg Corp.,
305 F.3d
1293, 1295 n.8 (11th Cir. 2002) (concluding that a district court’s conversion of a Rule 12(b)(6)
motion to dismiss into a Rule 12(c) motion for judgment on the pleadings was harmless error
because the substantive analysis was the same).
2
claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief” and that “[e]ach allegation . . .
be simple, concise, and direct.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2), (d)(1). Rule 8 does not
require a plaintiff to provide detailed factual allegations; but a complaint will not
suffice if it offers no more than “labels and conclusions,” or “an unadorned, the
defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal,
129 S. Ct. 1937,
1949 (2009). While a court should not penalize a pro se plaintiff for “linguistic
imprecision,” “wildly implausible allegations in the complaint should not be taken
as true.”
Miller, 541 F.3d at 1100.
Here, Plaintiff filed a complaint against members of the Hampton Beach
Club Condominium Association and against the Association’s lawyer.2 In part,
Plaintiff complained that the Association required him, over his objection, to install
aluminum shutters on his unit to protect against hurricane damage. Plaintiff also
claimed that Association members entered his residence without his permission to
install the “illegal” shutters. On appeal, Plaintiff argues that the district court
ignored the clearly stated violations he pleaded against Defendants and did not
accept his allegations as true. We disagree.
Despite the liberal pleading standards and the leniency granted to pro se
litigants, Plaintiff’s 35-page, single-spaced complaint failed to provide sufficient,
2
Plaintiff owned a unit at the condominium complex.
3
coherent factual allegations to survive a motion to dismiss. Plaintiff failed to
divide his complaint into numbered paragraphs with discrete sets of facts and into
specific counts, or otherwise delineate clearly the causes of action that he intended
to pursue against each defendant. Plaintiff filed his complaint on the basis of
diversity jurisdiction for an alleged contract dispute. And some of the claims that
Plaintiff attempted to raise -- like trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation -- were
apparent from the face of the complaint. But Plaintiff referenced many legal
claims that were unrelated to civil, state actions, including criminal extortion,
constitutional violations, and violations of the Geneva Convention. So, it was
difficult to determine all of the claims Plaintiff sought to raise against which
defendants and which claims were plausible on their face. In addition, interspersed
with Plaintiff’s fact allegations and legal citations were negative characterizations
and inflammatory statements about Defendants. These irrelevant statements made
it impossible to separate out the factual allegations supporting his claims and
amounted to impermissible “labels and conclusions.” See
Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. at 1949.
In sum, Plaintiff’s complaint was neither short nor plain; and the allegations
were not simple, concise, and direct; thus, the district court committed no error in
4
dismissing the complaint for failure to comply with Rule 8.3
AFFIRMED.
3
Plaintiff argues that the district court erred in not considering his “amended” complaint
filed in August 2008. But Plaintiff’s August 2008 filing was simply a response to Defendants’
motion to strike his complaint and not a superseding amended complaint.
5