Robinson, et al v. Massey Et Al

* District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas, sitting by
designation.
** Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this
opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited
circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
_______________________
No. 98-20937
H-96-CV-2151
_______________________
JOHNNIE RAY ROBINSON,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
T. L. MASSEY, Captain; ET AL,
Defendants,
DAN MORALES, Attorney General,
State of Texas,
Appellant.
_________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Texas
_________________________________________________________________
June 8, 2000
Before JONES and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges, COBB, District Judge.*
PER CURIAM:**
To remedy the incompetence displayed by a junior member
of the former Texas Attorney General’s office, who attempted to
obtain a three-strikes dismissal of a prisoner suit based on

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another prisoner’s court filings, the district court sanctioned
former Attorney General Dan Morales $500. From this penalty, the
Attorney General’s office appeals. We sympathize with the court’s
frustration that it had to correct the State’s obvious error and
produce its own three-strikes information, but sanctioning the
state’s Attorney General went too far.
The court’s order under Rule 11 is reviewed for abuse of
discretion. Some sanction would have been appropriate against the
AAG who filed the incorrect pleadings, and we acknowledge that Rule
11 permits sanctioning of non-signers of pleadings who are
“responsible” for the violation. But there is no indication that
Morales had anything to do with this insignificant prisoner case,
one among thousands handled by the Attorney General’s office each
year. The court’s assertion that the former attorney general was
“a total stranger to leadership” represents a petulant personal
opinion rather than a conclusion grounded in this case. It was
improper to sanction Morales.
Since the court expressly declined to sanction the
culpable AAG, the award must be reversed. This should offer no
great comfort to the Attorney General’s office in the future,
however. Rule 11 was devised to cover exactly the sort of
misinformation purveyed to the court in this case. Only good luck
saved the state official.
REVERSED.

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