Wallace v. Baldwin

In section 1983 action by plaintiff-prisoner alleging that defendants-prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his mental illness by keeping him in solitary confinement for over 11-year period, Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis, where Dist. Ct. found under Prison Litigation Reform Act that plaintiff had three “strikes” for having filed prior frivolous complaints, and where plaintiff failed to qualify for statutory exception to three-strike rule that would allow him to proceed in spite of said strikes under circumstances where plaintiff could show that he was under imminent danger of serious physical injury. Plaintiff’s allegations that solitary confinement caused him to incur suicidal thoughts qualified for statutory exemption to three-strike rule. Moreover, one of plaintiff’s three prior cases that Dist. Ct. used to deny instant motion did not qualify as “strike,” where plaintiff had sought unsuccessfully to intervene into existing case.