Bruce Beaudett v. City of Hampton City Attorneys A. Paul Burton and W. Stephen Moore Judge T.H. Wilson, II and Judge Nelson T. Overton
- Decided
- November 4, 1985
- Docket
- 84-1009
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 2,690 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that, "[e]ven in the case of pro se litigants," "fleeting references" are insuf- ficient to preserve issues for appeal — Ferguson v. Upper Chesapeake (1996)
- recognizing that pro se litigants have an “untutored hand requiring special judicial solicitude” and saying that pro se “litigants with meritorious claims should not be tripped up in court on technical niceties” — Koukuntla v. Toll Brothers Real Estate, Inc. (2025)
- recognizing that pro se litigants have an “untutored hand requiring special judicial solicitude” and saying that pro se “litigants with meritorious claims should not be tripped up in court on technical niceties” — Barclay v. USAA General Indemnity Company (2021)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:
This case requires the court to consider once again the difficult problems raised when pro se litigants only vaguely identify potential legal issues in the controversy at hand. Though these litigants, cannot, of course, be expected to frame legal issues with the clarity and precision ideally evident in the work of those trained in law, neither can district courts be required to conjure up and decide issues never fairly presented to them. In this case, the district court addressed the only issue that this litigation gave it reason to consider, and we affirm the court’s dismissal of this action. Other issues urged on appeal simply were not presented to the district court, and neither that court nor this court need reach them.
I
Statutes cited
Cite this
Bruce Beaudett v. City of Hampton City Attorneys A. Paul Burton and W. Stephen Moore Judge T.H. Wilson, II and Judge Nelson T. Overton, 775 F.2d 1274 (1985)Read the full opinion
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