‘Vexatious’ litigant is barred from filing cases

Declaring him a vexatious litigant, the federal court has prohibited John S. Pangelinan, previously convicted over a threatening letter, from filing any lawsuit or documents in federal court that is related to a 1997 civil lawsuit filed against him.

U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood said Pangelinan’s actions “have clearly caused, and will continue to cause if not abated, needless work and expense to not only the court and its staff, but to any other party who has incurred his wrath.”

“Pangelinan’s history of repeated frivolous and vexatious litigation and bad-faith filings, his intentional and willful decision to disobey the valid orders of this court, and his avowed intention to continue in this course of action, leads the court ineluctably to conclude that no other sanction but a narrowly-drawn pre-filing order will be adequate to protect the court and other parties from Pangelinan’s relentless assaults,” said the judge in her order.

She said that Pangelinan will be allowed to submit court documents but the filing must be accompanied by a motion requesting permission to file the document and a copy of her entire order.

Tydingco-Gatewood said the plaintiff must also show proof that all monetary sanctions previously imposed by a federal court judge in any of the matters mentioned in this order to which he was or is a party have been paid in full.

Another proof, the judge said, is that the plaintiff is required to show cash in an amount to the full filing fee if he seeks to file a new complaint and the original and two copies of the document sought to be filed.

The cash will be returned to Pangelinan if the court disallows the filing.

The judge said any attempted filing by plaintiff will be received, but not filed, by the clerk of court and delivered to a judge for review and a determination if the proposed filing violates the terms and conditions of her order.

Tydingco-Gatewood said if the filing is deemed to violate this order, a miscellaneous file will be opened and Pangelinan’s proposed filing and an order prohibiting him will be placed in the file, which will then be closed.

If the filing is deemed not to violate the order, and all filing fees have been paid, a civil file will be opened and Pangelinan may proceed.

On May 16, 2008, district court designated judge Juan T. Lizama ordered Pangelinan to spend 10 months in jail after revoking Pangelinan’s probation in his criminal conviction for violating numerous terms and conditions of his probation.

Last month, the Guam-based Tydingco-Gatewood dismissed Pangelinan’s $61.1 million lawsuit against judges Alex R. Munson and David A. Wiseman.

In that order, Tydingco-Gatewood ruled that the lawsuit “is repetitive, meritless, vexatious, abusive, and burdensome.”

The judge also sanctioned Pangelinan to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs to all non-federal defendants he included in his litigation.

In a separate order, the judge gave Pangelinan until May 22, 2008 to explain why he should not be declared a vexatious litigant.

Tydingco-Gatewood described the plaintiff as one of the Commonwealth’s most active pro se litigant.

The judge noted that court records show that Pangelinan filed 18 appeals related to matters having their genesis in the court’s judgment in a 1997 case in which he was found liable to pay $270,000.

In January 2008, Pangelinan filed the $61.1 million lawsuit against judges Munson and Wiseman. He also named as co-defendants in his lawsuit two lawyers, a federal prosecutor, an FBI agent, two federal probation officers, two U.S. Marshals, and seven other people.

In the lawsuit he filed pro se (without a lawyer), Pangelinan also sued 13 grand jurors and 12 jurors.

In her order issued Tuesday relating to the vexatious litigant issue, Tydingco-Gatewood noted that Pangelinan’s history of pro se litigation “has been vexatious, intended to harass, and duplicative.”