Hassan Saleh v. Holder

11-1504-cv Hassan Saleh v. Holder UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of New York, on the 22nd day of May, two thousand twelve. PRESENT: JON O. NEWMAN, CHESTER J. STRAUB, GERARD E. LYNCH, Circuit Judges. _____________________________________ Tarek Youssef Hassan Saleh, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. 11-1504-cv Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the United States, et al., Defendants-Appellees. _____________________________________ FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT: TAREK YOUSSEF HASSAN SALEH, pro se, Brooklyn, NY. FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES: EDWARD SCARVALONE (David Rivera, on the brief), Doar Rieck Kaley & Mack, New York, NY, for Defendant- Appellee Mahmoud Elrammal. NATASHA OELTJEN, Assistant United States Attorney (David S. Jones, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), for Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Batts, J., Gorenstein, M.J.). UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED in part and VACATED in part and the case is REMANDED to the district court to modify the judgment so as to dismiss Appellant’s claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) without prejudice. Appellant Tarek Youssef Hassan Saleh, proceeding pro se, appeals the district court’s judgment dismissing his amended complaint with prejudice. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, the procedural history of the case, and the issues on appeal. We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a complaint under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6), accepting as true the factual allegations in the complaint and drawing all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor. See Macias v. Zenk, 495 F.3d 37, 40 (2d Cir. 2007); Triestman v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 470 F.3d 471, 474 (2d 2 Cir. 2006). The district court correctly determined that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Saleh's FTCA claims because he had not exhausted his administrative remedies prior to filing his initial district court complaint. See 28 U.S.C. § 2675; McNeil v. United States, 508 U.S. 106, 111-13 (1993). However, as the Government acknowledges, in such a situation the proper course of action is for the district court to dismiss the claims without prejudice to allow the litigant to institute a separate new action once exhaustion has been completed. See Neal v. Goord, 267 F.3d 116, 123 (2d Cir. 2001), abrogated on other grounds by Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516, 524 (2002); Snider v. Melindez, 199 F.3d 108, 111-12 (2d Cir. 1999); see also Macias, 495 F.3d at 39-40 (affirming dismissal without prejudice of unexhausted FTCA claims). Thus, the district court erred in denying Saleh’s FTCA claims with prejudice. Having conducted an independent review of the record, we affirm the remainder of the district court’s judgment dismissing Saleh’s amended complaint for substantially the same reasons stated in the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and in the district court’s order. We have considered all of Saleh’s remaining arguments on appeal and find them to be without merit. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is hereby AFFIRMED in part and VACATED in part, and the case is REMANDED 3 for the district court to enter judgment dismissing Saleh’s claims under the FTCA without prejudice. FOR THE COURT: Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk 4