Brown v. United States of America ( 2021 )

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 CECILE A. BROWN, CASE NO. C21-0246-JCC 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 13 Defendant. 14 15 This matter comes before the Court on referral from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 16 which requests that the Court determine whether Ms. Brown’s appeal is frivolous or was taken in 17 bad faith. (Dkt. No. 60.) “[A]n appeal on a matter of law is frivolous where ‘[none] of the legal 18 points [are] arguable on their merits.’” Neitzke v. Williams, 490 U.S. 319, 325 (1989). An appeal 19 is also frivolous if the “factual contentions are clearly baseless.” Id. at 327. “[A] finding of 20 factual frivolousness is appropriate when the facts alleged rise to the level of the irrational or the 21 wholly incredible, whether or not there are judicially noticeable facts available to contradict 22 them.” Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33 (1992). 23 Having considered the record and the basis for Ms. Brown’s appeal, the Court concludes 24 that the appeal is legally and factually frivolous. First, it is well-established that the Court lacks 25 jurisdiction to hear veterans’ claims for benefits. See Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki, 26 678 F.3d 1013, 1020 (9th Cir. 2012). Second, Ms. Brown’s claim that President Biden personally 1 intervened in her case to illegally deny her veterans benefits as a means of “overturn[ing] 2 everything Trump approved of as President” and getting “revenge on Trump” is frivolous. See 3 Motion to Hear Case with Other Case at 1, Brown v. United States, No. 21-35383, Dkt. No. 8-1 4 (9th Cir. May 24, 2021). 5 6 DATED this 9th day of June 2021. A 7 8 9 John C. Coughenour 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26