A. Robert Freeley v. United States

A letter from appellant, a federal prisoner, to the district court was, at the election of the district court, treated as a petition for mandamus, docketed and dismissed. There was no service upon the United States nor any agent thereof and no response was required.

Relying on notice pleading concepts and the supervening Supreme Court decision of Haines v. Kerner, 1972, 404 U.S. 519, 92 S.Ct. 594, 30 L.Ed.2d 652, appellant now urges that he was entitled to offer proof to substantiate the claims contained in the letter. We agree. Since the district court so considered it, we proceed on the…