Banks v. Bellvue Hospital

Background

The court had previously ordered Edwin Banks to file an amended complaint within 60 days and expressly warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal. Banks did not file an amended complaint. Instead, he filed a notice of an interlocutory appeal from the order requiring amendment and sent three letters requesting copies of his complaint. The Clerk’s Office was directed to mail him a copy.

Court’s authority to act

The court held that Banks’s notice of appeal did not remove the district court’s authority over the case. The appeal challenged an order requiring amendment, which was not a final order and had not been certified for an immediate appeal. The court therefore treated the notice of appeal as premature and ineffective for transferring control of the case to the Court of Appeals.

Ruling

The complaint had been filed under a fee-waiver provision of federal law. Because Banks did not file the required amended complaint, the court dismissed the complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii). The court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction—that is, authority to decide related state-law claims—over any state-law claims Banks may have been asserting.

The court 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 fee-waived status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not state the substance of Banks’s underlying claims.