MacDonald v. Secretary Department of Corrections
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-09100
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In MacDonald v. Secretary Department of Corrections, Judge Swain terminated two pending motions after transferring the case to Florida.
Jason MacDonald, whose discovery and amended-complaint motions were terminated in the Southern District of New York; any further relief must be sought in the Northern District of Florida action.
What happened
In MacDonald v. Secretary Department of Corrections, the court had already transferred the case to the Northern District of Florida, where it received a new docket number. Jason MacDonald had filed motions asking to compel discovery and to file an amended complaint.
Because the case was closed in the Southern District of New York, that court said it would take no action on either motion. It directed the Clerk of Court to terminate both motions and said MacDonald could seek any relief in filings in the Florida case.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the motions terminated and certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, denying fee-free appeal status. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- MacDonald v. Secretary Department of Corrections · No. 1:24-cv-09100
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 3, 2025
Background
The Southern District of New York had transferred this action to the Northern District of Florida by an order dated December 18, 2024. The Clerk’s Office electronically transferred the action on January 2, 2025. On that same day, Jason MacDonald filed a motion to compel discovery and a motion to file an amended complaint.
The Northern District of Florida notified the Southern District of New York that it had received the action and assigned it docket number 25-CV-0004. On January 9, 2025, that court denied MacDonald’s application to proceed without paying filing fees, without prejudice, directed him to file an amended complaint, and ordered him either to pay the fees for starting a new civil action or to complete that court’s application to proceed without paying filing fees.
Ruling
The Southern District of New York stated that the action was closed there and that it would take no action on the motion to compel discovery or the motion to file an amended complaint. It directed the Clerk of Court to terminate those motions, docketed as ECF 7 and ECF 8. The court stated that any relief MacDonald sought could be addressed in submissions filed in the action pending in the Northern District of Florida.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. The opinion did not decide the merits of MacDonald’s underlying claims or the merits of either terminated motion.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.