Dawn W. v. Commissioner of Social Security
- Edgardo Ramos
- 1:23-cv-04712
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Dawn W. v. Commissioner, Judge Ramos denied Dawn W.’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and dismissed the Social Security case.
Dawn W.’s Social Security case was dismissed, and she was denied fee-free status for any appeal. The Commissioner of Social Security prevailed on the pending motion.
What happened
Dawn W. sued the Commissioner of Social Security seeking court review of a Social Security decision. The court had allowed her to proceed without paying the filing fee and referred the case to a magistrate judge.
Dawn W. asked for judgment based on the written filings. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Jones recommended denying that motion and dismissing the case. No party objected to the recommendation.
Judge Edgardo Ramos reviewed the recommendation, found no clear error, adopted it, denied Dawn W.’s motion, and dismissed the case. The court also denied fee-free status for any appeal because it certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Dawn W. v. Commissioner of Social Security · No. 1:23-cv-04712
- Edgardo Ramos
- July 9, 2024
Background
Dawn W. filed a complaint seeking review of a decision by the Commissioner of Social Security under the Social Security Act. The court granted her request to proceed without paying the filing fee. The case was referred to Magistrate Judge Gary R. Jones for Social Security proceedings.
Dawn W. later filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, which asks the court to decide the case based on the parties’ written pleadings rather than a trial. The motion was fully briefed. Judge Jones issued a Report and Recommendation recommending that the motion be denied and that the case be dismissed. The parties were given fourteen days to object, but no objections were filed.
Court’s Review
Under the federal magistrate-judge statute and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a district judge may accept, reject, or modify a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation. When no timely objection is filed, the district judge may adopt the recommendation if the record shows no clear error.
Judge Ramos reviewed Judge Jones’s report and found no errors, “clear or otherwise.” The court therefore adopted the recommendation. The opinion does not independently explain the underlying Social Security decision or set out a separate merits analysis.
Disposition
The court denied Dawn W.’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings and dismissed the case. It directed the Clerk of Court to close the case. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not state that the dismissal was with or without prejudice.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.