WARREN MASSEY, PETITIONER,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, RESPONDENT
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Warren Massey sought mandamus relief to compel the circuit court to rule on his motion for postconviction relief. The appellate court denied the petition and, finding Massey an abusive litigant who filed 37 cases since 2004 with no successful outcomes, imposed sanctions requiring him to retain counsel for future pro se filings and barring him from filing further pro se petitions.
The court imposed sanctions on Massey, requiring that he retain a member of The Florida Bar in good standing to file a notice of appearance in any active case pending before the court within 10 days, failing which such cases would be dismissed. The court also directed the clerk to accept no further pro se filings from Massey.
[1] A court may order a litigant to secure counsel for active cases if the litigant has a history of filing numerous unsuccessful pro se actions and fails to show cause why s…
[2] A court may direct its clerk to reject all future pro se filings from a litigant who has a history of filing numerous unsuccessful pro se actions and fails to show cause…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Massey has been an extremely active litigator in this court whose cases have required substantial expenditure of staff resources without any meaningful result.”
Establishes the court's basis for finding Massey to be a vexatious litigant warranting sanctions.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceWarren Massey filed a mandamus petition seeking to compel the Circuit Court for Duval County to rule on his pending motion for postconviction relief. …
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In this mandamus proceeding, Warren Massey seeks an order of this court which would compel the Circuit Court for Duval County to rule on his pending motion for postconviction relief. In response, the State of Florida demonstrated that the motion was denied and mandamus was previously denied as moot. It has come to this court’s attention that Massey has been an extremely active litigator in this court whose cases have required substantial expenditure of staff resources without any meaningful result. An order issued which directed Massey’s attention to the fact that his 37 cases filed since 2004 have yielded no relief to him and asked him to show cause why he should not be barred from appearing hereafter in proper person before this court. We have considered the response of petitioner to the order to show cause but he has failed to demonstrate why the proposed sanction should not be imposed. See Lee v. Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 873 So.2d 489 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004); Martin v. State, 833 So.2d 756 (Fla.2002); Attwood v. Eighth Circuit Court, Union County, 667 So.2d 356 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Peterson v. State, 530 So.2d 424 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988). It is therefore ordered that Warren Massey shall secure the filing of a notice of appearance by a member in good standing of The Florida Bar in any active case now pending before this court in which he appears as appellant or petitioner within 10 days of the date of this order, failing which such cases shall be dismissed. Further, the clerk of this court is directed to accept no further pro se filings from Massey; if received, they shall be returned to him without filing and with a reference to this order.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
BENTON, VAN NORTWICK, and HAWKES, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Attwood v. Eighth Cir. Court, 667 So. 2d 356 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995)
- Peterson v. State, 530 So. 2d 424 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988)
- Martin v. State, 833 So. 2d 756 (Fla. 2002)
- LEE v. Fla. Dep't OF Corr., 873 So. 2d 489 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004)