Tony Anthony Fair v. Deputy Leslie Gaiter ( 2022 )


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  • USCA11 Case: 20-11599    Date Filed: 04/13/2022   Page: 1 of 3
    [DO NOT PUBLISH]
    In the
    United States Court of Appeals
    For the Eleventh Circuit
    ____________________
    No. 20-11599
    Non-Argument Calendar
    ____________________
    TONY ANTHONY FAIR,
    Plaintiff-Appellant,
    versus
    DEPUTY LESLIE GAITER,
    Richmond County Sheriffs Department,
    DEPUTY MCMURTRY,
    Richmond County Sheriffs Department,
    ASSISTANT D.A. TIMOTHY O'BRIEN,
    KELLY WILLIAMSON,
    Public Defender,
    ERIKA PAGE REESE, et al.,
    USCA11 Case: 20-11599         Date Filed: 04/13/2022      Page: 2 of 3
    2                       Opinion of the Court                  20-11599
    Defendants-Appellees.
    ____________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Southern District of Georgia
    D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cv-00212-JRH-BKE
    ____________________
    Before LUCK, BRASHER, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
    PER CURIAM:
    Tony Anthony Fair, a state prisoner proceeding pro se, ap-
    peals the district court’s dismissal of his civil lawsuit pursuant to 
    28 U.S.C. §§ 1915
    (e)(2)(B) and 1915(A)(b) as a sanction for his failure
    to honestly disclose his prior filing history. He argues that the dis-
    trict court erred because he properly stated a claim that his vehicle
    and other property were wrongfully confiscated during his 2018 ar-
    rest, constituting felony theft under Georgia law.
    We review § 1915 dismissals as a sanction for abuse of the
    judicial process under an abuse-of-discretion standard. Attwood v.
    Singletary, 
    105 F.3d 610
    , 612 (11th Cir. 1997).
    A dismissal without prejudice is not usually an abuse of dis-
    cretion because parties can just re-file their complaints. Dynes v.
    Army Air Force Exch. Serv., 
    720 F.2d 1495
    , 1499 (11th Cir. 1983).
    Dismissal with prejudice is justified if “the plaintiff engaged in bad
    faith litigiousness or manipulative tactics,” such as lying about their
    USCA11 Case: 20-11599           Date Filed: 04/13/2022      Page: 3 of 3
    20-11599                 Opinion of the Court                            3
    indigency or otherwise abusing the judicial process. Attwood, 
    105 F.3d at 613
    . We have held that dismissal of a prisoner plaintiff’s suit
    for lying under oath about the existence of a prior lawsuit counts
    as a “strike” under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Rivera v. Al-
    lin, 
    144 F.3d 719
    , 731 (11th Cir. 1998), partially vacated on other
    grounds, Jones v. Bock, 
    549 U.S. 199
    , 216 (2007).
    An appellant abandons a claim on appeal, such that we need
    not review the claim, when: (1) he makes only passing references
    to it; (2) he raises it in a perfunctory manner without supporting
    arguments and authority; (3) he refers to it only in the “statement
    of the case” or “summary of the argument”; or (4) the references
    to the issue are mere background to the appellant’s main argu-
    ments or are buried within those arguments. Sapuppo v. Allstate
    Floridian Ins. Co., 
    739 F.3d 678
    , 681-82 (11th Cir. 2014).
    We affirm the district court’s ruling because Fair abandoned
    his challenges by failing to discuss any of the district court’s reasons
    for dismissal in his brief on appeal. Even if Fair had properly pre-
    served his challenges, however, the district court did not abuse its
    discretion in determining that he deliberately misrepresented his
    filing history by failing to list prior federal lawsuits that he had filed,
    an action warranting dismissal without prejudice as a sanction.
    AFFIRMED.
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 20-11599

Filed Date: 4/13/2022

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 4/13/2022