On April 4, 2025, Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom (E.D.N.Y.) declined to sanction a pro se plaintiff for failing to conduct an adequate pre-suit investigation of whether his patent was infringed. Plaintiff initially filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan alleging that certain General Electric defendants (“GE”) infringed his patent directed to “super preheating” fuel in a combustion engine to improve efficiency and reduce emissions. After GE moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim and improper venue, the court found venue was improper and dismissed the case “without prejudice to allow Plaintiff to file his complaint in an appropriate venue.”
Plaintiff then filed suit in the Eastern District of New York against GE and several airlines who had purchased GE’s accused aircraft engines. Defendants again moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, and Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted the motion. Defendants then filed a motion for Rule 11 sanctions “to deter [Plaintiff] from continuing to file harassing lawsuits.” Magistrate Judge Bloom agreed that Plaintiff’s pre-suit investigation was inadequate. However, Judge Bloom denied the motion, finding that “[i]t would be unfair to an earnest pro se plaintiff … for one court to dismiss his case with the instruction to re-file in ’an appropriate venue,’ and then for the second jurisdiction to sanction him for filing his case.”
House v. General Electric Co., No. 23 CV 71 (LDH)(LB) (E.D.N.Y. April 4, 2025)
