Even though a Colorado inmate has filed dozens of lawsuits that failed to go anywhere, the state’s Court of Appeals admonished a Fremont County judge for dismissing one such civil suit outright without a valid reason.

By the Court of Appeals’ count, 25 of Jabari J. Johnson’s lawsuits in Fremont County were dismissed in 2020. By mid-2021, he had filed two additional complaints. District Court Judge Lynette M. Wenner, after outlining Johnson’s history of unsuccessful litigation, directed him in June 2021 to pay the required filing fee or she would dismiss his case.

After Johnson failed to pay, Wenner tossed Johnson’s lawsuit, which alleged disability discrimination and retaliation against him in prison.

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeals acknowledged trial judges must deny prisoners the ability to proceed “in forma pauperis” — meaning too poor to pay filing fees — if they actually have sufficient funds or else file a clearly frivolous or baseless lawsuit. It was clear Johnson did not have money, meaning Wenner apparently justified her dismissal on Johnson’s past history of unsuccessful lawsuits.

But that was not a valid justification under the law for dismissing a prisoner’s civil complaint.

“The district court’s order did not state that the present action was frivolous, groundless, or malicious, failed to state a claim for relief, or sought monetary damages from a defendant who was immune from such relief,” wrote Judge David J. Richman on Sept. 1. “Nor did it state that the previously dismissed actions were dismissed for those reasons.”

The panel directed Wenner to either reinstate Johnson’s lawsuit or “articulate a valid reason” for dismissing it.

Also on Sept. 1, a separate Court of Appeals panel upheld Wenner’s decision to dismiss another one of Johnson’s lawsuits, finding he had accumulated more than “three strikes” by pursuing frivolous claims.