Doe v. Sequoia Capital Operations LLC

Background

Amber Doe, also known as Amber Baptiste, filed this action without a lawyer in the Southern District of New York. She asserted claims involving an alleged sex-trafficking operation and named individuals, law firms, and other entities associated with Sequoia Capital LLC, Michael Lewis Goguen, and Two Bear Capital.

The opinion states that this was Doe’s second civil action in the Southern District of New York concerning alleged sex trafficking by these defendants. The court had transferred her earlier related case to the Central District of California. The opinion also states that the Central District of California had disposed of three substantially similar earlier actions involving Sequoia and Sequoia-associated defendants, and had found one action frivolous when denying Doe’s request to proceed without paying filing fees. The opinion further notes that Doe filed virtually identical complaints in the Middle District of Florida and the District of Columbia.

Motions and Transfer

Doe moved for recusal, meaning that she asked the judge to step aside. The court explained that recusal is required when a judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned. It found that Doe stated no facts showing the judge had deep-seated favoritism or antagonism that would make fair judgment impossible. The court concluded that Doe’s concerns reflected dissatisfaction with the court’s rulings in her earlier related case and denied the recusal motion.

The court applied the rule favoring the district handling the first-filed substantially similar action. It concluded that the Central District of California was in the best position to address this filing because it was substantially similar to three prior actions filed by Doe against Sequoia and related defendants, all of which had been disposed of in that district. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), the court transferred the action to the Central District of California in the interests of justice.

Disposition

The court directed the Clerk to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Central District of California. It stated that summonses would not issue from the Southern District of New York and that the case was closed in that court.

The court denied Doe’s motion for recusal and denied her motion for permission to participate in electronic case filing. It terminated those motions. The court did not rule on the motion for a temporary restraining order or the motion to proceed without paying filing fees; it stated that those determinations were reserved for the transferee court and terminated the motions in the New York case. Finally, the court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.