United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff
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United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff, 54 F.R.D. 282 (1971), is a well-known and unusual court case.
Gerald Mayo filed a claim before the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in which Mayo alleged that "Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff's downfall" and had therefore "deprived him of his constitutional rights". This is prohibited under several sections of the United States Code. Notably, Mayo filed in forma pauperis - that is, he asserted that he would not be able to afford the costs associated with his lawsuit and that they therefore should be waived.
In its decision the Court first noted that the jurisdictional situation was unclear. While no previous cases had been brought by or against Satan and so no official precedent existed, there was an "unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff", a clever reference to the short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster". The court suggested that the defendant (who had claimed in that story to be an American), should he appear, might have been therefore estopped from arguing a lack of personal jurisdiction.
The Court also noted that the case was certainly appropriate for class action status, and it was not then clear that Mayo could properly represent the interests of the entire (immense) class. Ultimately, though, the Court refused the request to proceed in forma pauperis on what might be considered a technicality: the plaintiff had not included instructions for how the U.S. Marshal could serve process on Satan.
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