Evans v. Atkins
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-01749
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Evans v. Atkins, Judge Swain dismissed the duplicate complaint without prejudice, vacated permission to proceed without prepaying fees, and denied fee-free status for an appeal.
Clarence Evans Jr. is affected because this duplicate lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, while the earlier case under docket number 24-CV-0927 (CS) remains pending. The agency holding him must not deduct or encumber money from his prison trust account for this lawsuit, and the Clerk must send the order to that agency.
What happened
In Evans v. Atkins, Clarence Evans Jr., who was incarcerated and represented himself, sued under a federal civil-rights law. He alleged assault, a false behavior report, and denial of fair disciplinary procedures while confined at Sullivan Correctional Facility.
The court found that Evans had already filed a substantially similar case against the same defendants, which remained pending under docket number 24-CV-0927 (CS). Because this lawsuit duplicated that case, the court concluded that continuing it would serve no useful purpose. The court also vacated its earlier permission for Evans to proceed without paying fees in advance and directed that he not be charged the $350 filing fee or have money taken from his prison account for this lawsuit.
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice as duplicative, terminated the remaining matters in this case, and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also directed the Clerk to send the order to the agency holding Evans and to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Evans v. Atkins · No. 1:24-cv-01749
- Laura Swain
- June 26, 2024
Background
Clarence Evans Jr. filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law allowing claims that state actors violated constitutional rights. The opinion states that Evans was incarcerated at Marcy Correctional Facility when he filed the case and that the alleged events occurred in January 2024 while he was confined at Sullivan Correctional Facility. His allegations included assault, issuance of a false behavior report, and denial of due process in disciplinary proceedings. He filed the complaint without a lawyer and asked to proceed without prepaying the filing fee.
Duplicative lawsuit
The court stated that Evans had previously filed a substantially similar complaint asserting many of the same claims against the same defendants. That earlier case remained pending under docket number 24-CV-0927 (CS). Because the current complaint raised the same claims, the court found that litigating this separate action would serve no useful purpose. The order therefore disposed of this case as duplicative rather than resolving the underlying allegations.
Filing fee and appeal status
On May 17, 2024, the court had granted Evans permission to proceed without prepaying fees and had directed the agency holding him to make payments from his prison account when the account exceeded $10, until the $350 filing fee was paid. The court vacated that May 17 order because it believed Evans may have submitted the duplicate complaint in error. It directed the Clerk not to charge the $350 filing fee for this action and directed the agency not to deduct or encumber funds from Evans’s prison trust account for this lawsuit.
The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. It directed the Clerk to enter judgment and send a copy of the order to the agency holding Evans.
Disposition
The court dismissed Evans’s complaint without prejudice as duplicative of the pleading in docket number 24-CV-0927 (CS). It also vacated the May 17, 2024 order granting permission to proceed without prepaying fees, directed that no filing fee be charged for this action, and terminated all other pending matters in the case.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.