KNIGHT v. BREAD FOR THE CITY

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
MARVIN KNIGHT, 	)
)
Plaintiff, 	)
)
v. 	) 	Civil Action No. 25-03404 (UNA)
)
)
BREAD FOR THE CITY, 	)
)
Defendant. 	)
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Plaintiff, appearing pro se, has filed a complaint and an application to proceed in forma
pauperis (IFP). For the following reasons, the Court grants the IFP application and dismisses the
complaint.
Plaintiff, a resident of Washington, D.C., sues a non-profit organization in the District of
Columbia. See Compl., ECF No. 1 at 3-4. He alleges “this factual claim been going on since 2009
of June” and suggests that Defendant has violated Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act without
alleging facts stating how and when. Id. at 4. Plaintiff seeks “lost wages from being denied legal
representation” seemingly to obtain “public benefit[s]” and/or medical treatment. Id.
Although pro se complaints are held to less stringent standards than those applied to formal
pleadings drafted by lawyers, Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 (1972), they must comport with
the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Jarrell v. Tisch, 656 F. Supp. 237, 239 (D.D.C. 1987).
Rule 8(a) requires that a complaint contain a short and plain statement of the grounds upon which
the court’s jurisdiction depends, a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader
is entitled to relief, and a demand for judgment for the relief the pleader seeks. Fed. R. Civ. P.
8(a). It “does not require detailed factual allegations, but it demands more than an unadorned, the-
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defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” 	Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009)
(internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
Plaintiff’s vague allegations fail to “give the defendant fair notice of what the claim is and
the grounds upon which it rests.” Jones v. Kirchner, 835 F.3d 74, 79 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (cleaned
up). Therefore, this case will be dismissed by separate order.
TREVOR N. McFADDEN
Date: November 19, 2025 	United States District Judge
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