Case: 18-14356 Date Filed: 04/15/2019 Page: 1 of 3
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 18-14356
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 7:17-cv-00202-HL
ALFRED D. JONES,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
versus
GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
JOHN DOE,
Defendants - Appellees.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Georgia
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(April 15, 2019)
Before WILLIAM PRYOR, JILL PRYOR and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Case: 18-14356 Date Filed: 04/15/2019 Page: 2 of 3
Alfred Jones, a Georgia prisoner, appeals the dismissal of his complaint of
excessive force, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for compensatory damages against the Georgia
Department of Corrections and a fictitious defendant and the denial of his motion
for leave to amend his complaint. The district court ruled that the Department
enjoys immunity from suit under the Eleventh Amendment, U.S. Const. amend.
XI, and that Jones’s motion to amend his complaint was futile because the statute
of limitations had expired. We affirm.
On December 6, 2017, Jones filed a complaint for damages against the
Department and “John Doe” alleging that, on December 7, 2015, an unnamed state
correctional officer fired pepper spray in and injured his right eye in violation of
the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. U.S. Const. amends. IV, V,
VIII, XIV. After the Department moved to dismiss Jones’s complaint based on
Eleventh Amendment immunity, Jones moved to amend his complaint and to
substitute eleven named state officials as defendants in place of Doe. The district
court dismissed Jones’s complaint and denied his motion to amend as futile.
We review issues of jurisdiction under the Eleventh Amendment de novo.
Green v. Graham,
906 F.3d 955, 959 (11th Cir. 2018). And we review a denial of a
motion to amend a complaint for abuse of discretion. Hollywood Mobile Estates
Ltd. v. Seminole Tribe,
641 F.3d 1259, 1264 (11th Cir. 2011).
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Case: 18-14356 Date Filed: 04/15/2019 Page: 3 of 3
The district court did not err. The Georgia Department of Corrections enjoys
immunity from suit in a federal court under the Eleventh Amendment. Seminole
Tribe v. Florida,
517 U.S. 44, 54 (1996). And any amendment of Jones’s
complaint of excessive force would be futile because the two-year statute of
limitations, O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, expired before Jones filed his motion to amend. An
amendment to substitute named officials for a fictitious defendant would not relate
back, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c), because the plaintiff lacked
knowledge of the proper defendant when he filed his complaint. Wayne v. Jarvis,
197 F.3d 1098, 1103–04 (11th Cir. 1999), overruled in part on other grounds by
Manders v. Lee,
338 F.3d 1304, 1328 n.52 (11th Cir. 2003) (en banc); Powers v.
Graff,
148 F.3d 1223, 1226–27 (11th Cir. 1998).
AFFIRMED.
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