Brown v. Prothonotary of Montgomery County (majority)
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Described as a "frequent flier of frivolous litigation," Appellee Alton Brown sought a writ of mandamus to force the Montgomery County Prothonotary to accept his complaint against various prison and state government officials. The complaint was rejected multiple times for being incomplete. The prothonotary moved to dismiss under the "three strikes" rule, and the trial court granted the motion. The Commonwealth Court overturned the trial court's dismissal with prejudice of Appellee's request for the writ. The issue on appeal to the Supreme Court was whether appellee's mandamus action constituted "prison conditions litigation" and would have therefore been subject to the "three strikes rule." Appellee argued his complaint was not subject to three strikes because in this case, the writ of mandamus was a procedural mechanism for an appellate court to review certain categories of lower court orders. The Supreme Court agreed with the prothonotary that a petition for writ of mandamus against the prothonotary may constitute prison conditions litigation and thus may be subject to three strikes: "Appellee [demanded that the Court] force the prothonotary to accept his complaint . . . just so the court may dismiss the complaint as prison conditions litigation. This is a clear waste of judicial resources, and in the interest of judicial economy, [the Court held] this mandamus petition to force acceptance of a complaint about prison conditions is itself prison condition litigation within the meaning of the statute. . . . An individual may not skirt the legislature's intent to preclude him from filing frivolous litigation merely by filing for an extraordinary writ."
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