95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9155, 95 Daily Journal D.A.R. 16,005 Jewel Cato Joyce Cato Howard Cato Edward Cato v. United States of America, Leerma Patterson Charles Patterson Bobbie Trice Johnson v. United States

70 F.3d 1103 95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9155 , 95 Daily Journal D.A.R. 16,005 Jewel CATO; Joyce Cato; Howard Cato; Edward Cato, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee. Leerma PATTERSON; Charles Patterson; Bobbie Trice Johnson, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee. Nos. 94-17102, 94-17104. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Oct. 16, 1995. Decided Dec. 4, 1995. Eva Jefferson Paterson and William McNeill, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco, California, for plaintiffs-appellants. Mary Beth Uitti, Assistant United States Attorney, San Francisco, California, for defendant-appellee. Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Before: SCHROEDER, FLETCHER, and RYMER, Circuit Judges. RYMER, Circuit Judge: 1 Two groups of plaintiffs, Jewel Cato, Joyce Cato, Howard Cato and Edward Cato; and Leerma Patterson, Charles Patterson, and Bobbie Trice Johnson (collectively "Cato"), filed nearly identical complaints in forma pauperis against the United States for damages due to the enslavement of African…