Louis v. The City of New York
- Ronnie Abrams
- 1:24-cv-09718
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 6
Louis v. The City of New York: Judge Korman transferred the case to the Southern District of New York, stayed defendants’ response deadline, and denied transfer to a specific judge.
Kerly Jean Louis, the City of New York, and the New York City Department of Correction. The case will proceed in the Southern District of New York, and the defendants’ deadline to answer or otherwise respond is paused until the case is opened there.
What happened
In Louis v. The City of New York, Kerly Jean Louis sued the City and the New York City Department of Correction for injuries he says resulted from an inmate attack while he worked as a correction officer. He alleges that failures to follow a court-approved decree about conditions at Rikers Island contributed to the attack.
The defendants asked to move the case from the Eastern District of New York to the Southern District of New York, specifically to Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who presides over the earlier decree-related case. They also asked to pause their deadline to answer or otherwise respond to the complaint while the transfer request was pending.
Judge Edward R. Korman granted the transfer request and the stay, but denied the request to send the case to Chief Judge Swain specifically. The order directs the Clerk to transfer the case to the Southern District and pauses defendants’ response deadline until the case is opened there.
The detailed version
- Louis v. The City of New York · No. 1:24-cv-09718
- Ronnie Abrams
- Dec. 5, 2024
Background
Kerly Jean Louis sued the City of New York and the New York City Department of Correction under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law allowing claims for violations of constitutional rights by government actors. He seeks damages and equitable relief based on injuries he says he suffered after an inmate stabbed him while he was working as a correction officer at the Anne M. Kross Center on Rikers Island.
Louis alleges that the defendants’ failure to comply with a consent decree requiring changes at Rikers Island contributed to unsafe and unconstitutional conditions that led to the attack. The defendants removed the case from New York state court to the Eastern District of New York.
Transfer Request
The defendants moved under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) to transfer the case to the Southern District of New York. They also asked that it be assigned specifically to Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain because she presides over the earlier decree-related litigation. The defendants represented that Louis did not object to transfer to the Southern District, but that he did not consent to transfer to Chief Judge Swain specifically.
Judge Korman concluded that transfer to the Southern District was proper. The parties had mutually agreed to that transfer, and the court also found that the case could have been brought there because the defendants were subject to jurisdiction there and the claims arose from events at Rikers Island, which is in the Bronx and within the Southern District. The court further found that the relevant convenience and fairness factors favored transfer and that no opposing considerations weighed against it.
The court denied the request for transfer to Chief Judge Swain specifically. Section 1404(a) permits transfer to another district or division, but does not provide a mechanism for transferring a case to a particular judge in another court.
Stay of Response Deadline
The court granted the defendants’ request to stay their deadline to answer or otherwise respond to the complaint. The stay remains in effect until the date the case is opened in the Southern District. The court relied in part on the parties’ consent and noted the courts’ and public’s interest in resolving a case involving correctional administration.
Disposition
The defendants’ motion was granted in part and denied in part. The case is to be transferred to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the response deadline is stayed until the case is opened there, and the request for transfer to Chief Judge Swain is denied.
Read the full 6-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.