Davis v. The Bank of New York Mellon
- Gregory Woods
- 1:24-cv-07303
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Davis v. The Bank of New York Mellon, Judge Woods denied Corey Davis’s temporary restraining-order motion because the targeted foreclosure auction was scheduled before the court received it.
Corey Davis’s request for emergency relief was denied; The Bank of New York Mellon remained the defendant, and the order did not decide the underlying foreclosure dispute.
What happened
In Davis v. The Bank of New York Mellon, Corey Davis, representing himself, asked the court to stop a foreclosure auction scheduled for September 25, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. The court received his motion on September 26, after the scheduled time.
The court denied the motion because the requested relief was no longer available. It explained that preliminary emergency relief requires a threat of harm that has not yet happened, while Davis’s motion indicated that any harm from the auction would already have occurred or appeared to have occurred. The court did not decide the underlying foreclosure dispute.
Judge Gregory H. Woods also ruled that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied Davis permission to appeal without paying the filing fee. The clerk was directed to terminate the motion, issue a summons, and mail Davis a copy of the order.
The detailed version
- Davis v. The Bank of New York Mellon · No. 1:24-cv-07303
- Gregory Woods
- Sept. 27, 2024
Background
On September 25, 2024, pro se plaintiff Corey Davis initiated the case by filing a motion for a temporary restraining order. A temporary restraining order is short-term emergency relief. Davis sought to prevent a foreclosure-auction sale scheduled for September 25, 2024, at 11:00 a.m.
The opinion states that the court received Davis’s motion on September 26, after the scheduled auction time. The court noted that the motion was sent by mail and that Davis is incarcerated. Although the court docketed the motion on September 26, the courthouse appears to have received the mailing on September 25.
Legal Standard
The court explained that temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions are extraordinary remedies and are not granted automatically. A party seeking this relief must show irreparable harm—harm that is actual and imminent, cannot be remedied with money damages, and is not merely speculative. The party must also show either a likelihood of success on the merits or sufficiently serious legal questions combined with a balance of hardships that strongly favors the requested relief.
Ruling
The court denied Davis’s motion for a temporary restraining order because the requested relief was no longer available. The motion sought to stop an auction that was scheduled to occur before the court received the motion. The court stated that the auction had presumably already taken place and that any resulting irreparable harm appeared already to have occurred. Because emergency injunctive relief requires a threat of future irreparable harm, the court denied the requested injunctive relief.
The court did not rule on the merits of the underlying foreclosure dispute. It also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied in forma pauperis status for an appeal, meaning Davis could not appeal without paying the required filing fee under that ruling. The clerk was directed to terminate the motion at Docket No. 1, issue a summons, and mail Davis a copy of the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.