Larry M. West v. R. K. Procunier, Director, California Department of Corrections

Larry West, Lonnie Culver, and Ruchell Magee, inmates at San Quentin Prison, appeal from an order dated May 10, 1971, refusing to authorize the filing of their in forma pauperis civil rights complaint unless the claim of Magee is separated from the claim of West and Culver. Assuming, without deciding, that the order is appealable (cf. Weller v. Dickson, 314 F.2d 598 (9th Cir. 1963)), we affirm.

Magee is currently awaiting trial in a California superior court. Responding to a series of in forma pauperis removal petitions and complaints filed in federal court, the District Judge below entered an order on March 31, 1971, requiring that all of Magee’s complaints “be lodged with the clerk and be considered by any judge of the Northern District (of California), and then filed only if they are found to have merit.”

During the next month four more complaints and petitions, including the instant complaint, were received by the district court bearing Magee’s name as one of several parties-plaintiff or filed by him on behalf of someone else. In response to this apparent effort to avoid the previous order, the District Judge entered the order which forms the basis for the current…