LEWIS v. LEWIS, No. 1:2024cv00125 - Document 4 (D.D.C. 2024)
Court Description: MEMORANDUM AND OPINION. Signed by Judge Christopher R. Cooper on 1/24/2024. (zrtw)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MICHELLE LEWIS, ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Plaintiff, v. MICHELLE LEWIS, Defendant. Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-0125 (UNA) MEMORANDUM OPINION This matter is before the Court on its initial review of plaintiff’s application for leave to proceed in forma pauperis (ECF No. 2), pro se complaint (ECF No. 1), and motion for an injunction (ECF No. 3). The Court will grant the application, deny the motion, and dismiss the complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii), by which the Court is required to dismiss a case “at any time” if it determines that the action is frivolous. “A complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). A complaint that lacks “an arguable basis either in law or in fact” is frivolous, Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989), and the Court cannot exercise subject matter jurisdiction over a frivolous complaint, Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. 528, 536-37 (1974) (“Over the years, this Court has repeatedly held that the federal courts are without power to entertain claims otherwise within their jurisdiction if they are ‘so attenuated and unsubstantial as to be absolutely devoid of merit.’”) (quoting Newburyport Water Co. v. Newburyport, 193 U.S. 561, 579 (1904)); Tooley v. Napolitano, 586 F.3d 1006, 1010 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (examining cases dismissed “for patent insubstantiality,” including where plaintiff 1 allegedly “was subjected to a campaign of surveillance and harassment deriving from uncertain origins.”). Consequently, a Court is obligated to dismiss a complaint as frivolous “when the facts alleged rise to the level of the irrational or the wholly incredible,” Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33 (1992), or “postulat[e] events and circumstances of a wholly fanciful kind,” Crisafi v. Holland, 655 F.2d 1305, 1307-08 (D.C. Cir. 1981). The instant complaint satisfies this standard and, therefore, it will be dismissed without prejudice. An Order is issued separately. CHRISTOPHER R. COOPER United States District Judge DATE: January 24, 2024 2
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