HENSARLING v. MELTON et al

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
PENSACOLA DIVISION
RICHARD EARL HENSARLING, JR,
Plaintiff,
v. 	Case No. 3:26cv1719-TKW-HTC
MALIK MELTON, et al.,
Defendants.
________________________________/
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
Plaintiff Richard Earl Hensarling, an inmate proceeding pro se and in forma
pauperis, filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging constitutional claims
against three (3) Defendants administering the Continuum of Care program for the
GEO Group at Blackwater River Correctional Facility. Doc. 1. After reviewing the
complaint, the undersigned finds it should be dismissed because Hensarling failed
to truthfully disclose his litigation history.
This Court’s Local Rules require prisoners and pro se litigants to use the
Court’s complaint form when filing a civil rights complaint. 	See N.D. Fla. Loc. R.
5.7(A). 	Three subsections of the form require litigants to disclose specific prior
litigation history. Section VIII.A required Hensarling to disclose his prior litigation
history pertaining to “any case in federal court, including federal appellate court,
dismissed as frivolous, as malicious, for failure to state a claim, or prior to service.”
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Doc. 1 at 18. Section VIII.B required him to disclose “any other lawsuits or appeals
in state or federal court dealing with the same facts or issues involved in this case.”
Id. at 19. And Section VIII.C required him to disclose “any other lawsuit, habeas
corpus petition, or appeal in state or federal court either challenging [his] conviction
or relating to the conditions of [his] confinement.” Id. at 19. (emphasis in original).
The complaint form warns plaintiffs that “failure to disclose all prior state and
federal cases—including, but not limited to civil cases, habeas cases, and
appeals—may result in the dismissal of this case.” Id. at 17 (emphasis in original).
Moreover, the complaint form advises plaintiffs to “err on the side of caution” if they
are uncertain about whether a case should be identified. Id.
Despite signing the amended complaint under “penalty of perjury, that all of
the information … included on or with [the] form, including [his] litigation history,
is true and correct,” id. at 21-22, based on an independent investigation, the
undersigned takes judicial notice that Hensarling failed to disclose at least the
following three (3) cases challenging the conditions of his confinement:
(1) Hensarling v. Moore, et al., Case No. 6:01cv1393-ACC-DAB (M.D.
Fla. Dec. 3, 2001);
(2) Hensarling v. USA et al., Case No. 5:10cv344-WTH-PRL (M.D.
Fla. June 9, 2015); and
(3) Hensarling v. Escambia Cnty. Jail et al., Case No.3:23cv17921-LC-
ZCB (N.D. Fla. Dec. 21, 2023).
Each of these cases was filed prior to the instant complaint and should have
been disclosed under Section VIII.C. 	Additionally, Hensarling v. Moore and
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Hensarling v. Escambia Cnty. Jail were both dismissed prior to service and thus
should have also been listed under Section VIII.A.
The Court has the inherent power to dismiss a complaint for failure to disclose
even a single case. 	See McNair v. Johnson, 143 F.4th 1301 (11th Cir. 2025)
(recognizing court’s inherent authority to dismiss an action for failure to truthfully
disclose litigation history when requested to do so on complaint form). It also has
the inherent power to dismiss based on a failure to comply with orders of the Court,
this Court’s local rules, or for abusing the judicial process. Id. at 1308; see also N.D.
Fla. Loc. R. 41.1 (“If a party fails to comply with an applicable rule or a court order,
the Court may strike a pleading, dismiss a claim, enter a default on a claim, take
other appropriate action, or issue an order to show cause why any of these actions
should not be taken.”).
Thus, an appropriate sanction for Hensarling’s failure to truthfully disclose his
litigation history is to dismiss this case without prejudice. See Bratton v. Sec’y Dep’t
of Corr., 2012 WL 2913171, at *1 (M.D. Fla. July 16, 2012) (dismissing case without
prejudice when prisoner failed to disclose one prior federal case that was dismissed
under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)); Johnson v. Crawson, No. 5:08cv300/RS/EMT, 2010
WL 1380247, at *2 (N.D. Fla. Mar. 3, 2010) (same); see also Strickland v. United
States, 739 F. App’x 587, 588 (11th Cir. 2018) (“A sanction less than dismissal would
signal that a failure to disclose filings is an infraction without consequence.”). “If
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the requirement for prisoner plaintiffs to disclose their prior lawsuits is to serve its
purpose, a plaintiff must provide accurate information. 	If word got around the
prisons that inaccurate or incomplete information could be provided with no
effective sanction, the form would serve little purpose.” 	Rodriguez v. Inch, No.
4:19cv191/RH/HTC, Doc. 52 (N.D. Fla. June 7, 2020).
Accordingly, it is RECOMMENDED that:
1. 	This case be DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE for Hensarling’s
failure to truthfully disclose his litigation history.
2. 	The clerk close the file.
At Pensacola, Florida, this 13 th day of March, 2026.
/s/ Hope Thai Cannon
HOPE THAI CANNON
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
NOTICE TO THE PARTIES
Objections to these proposed findings and recommendations must be filed within
fourteen (14) days of the date of the Report and Recommendation. Any different
deadline that may appear on the electronic docket is for the court’s internal use only
and does not control. An objecting party must serve a copy of its objections upon all
other parties. A party who fails to object to the magistrate judge’s findings or
recommendations contained in a report and recommendation waives the right to
challenge on appeal the district court’s order based on the unobjected-to factual and
legal conclusions. See 11th Cir. Rule 3-1.
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