Mrabet v. Gurleski
Mounir Mrabet v. Mark Gurleski; Leslie Ahlberg; Gotham Mini Storage; Jane Chong; Grand Hyatt Hotel
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-06502
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Mounir Mrabet v. Mark Gurleski, Judge Swain dismissed Mrabet’s duplicate lawsuit without prejudice and did not charge its filing fee.
Mounir Mrabet, the defendants named in this duplicate action, the pending related case, and officials responsible for collecting the filing fee and handling Mrabet’s prison trust account.
What happened
In Mounir Mrabet v. Mark Gurleski, Mounir Mrabet, who was incarcerated and representing himself, sued several defendants over a search of his property.
The court found that Mrabet had already filed a substantially similar case involving many of the same defendants, claims, and events. That earlier case, docket number 25-CV-1952 (LTS), was still pending.
Judge Swain dismissed this lawsuit without prejudice to the earlier case. She directed the Clerk not to charge the filing fee, denied permission to appeal without paying fees, and directed entry of judgment.
The detailed version
- Mrabet v. Gurleski · No. 1:25-cv-06502
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 10, 2025
Background
Mounir Mrabet, who was incarcerated at FCI Raybrook and proceeded without a lawyer, filed an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleged that the defendants violated his rights in connection with a search of his property. The defendants named were Mark Gurleski, Leslie Ahlberg, Gotham Mini Storage, Jane Chong, and Grand Hyatt Hotel.
The court stated that Mrabet had previously filed a substantially similar complaint against many of the same defendants, asserting the same claims based on the same events. That earlier case remained pending under docket number 25-CV-1952 (LTS). The court concluded that filing and litigating this duplicate lawsuit would serve no useful purpose.
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint as duplicative of the pending case, without prejudice to Mrabet’s pending case under docket number 25-CV-1952 (LTS). The opinion noted that Gotham Mini Storage and Grand Hyatt Hotel were named in this lawsuit but not in the earlier one. It stated that Mrabet could seek to amend the earlier complaint to add those parties as defendants as permitted by Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The court directed the Clerk of Court not to charge Mrabet the $350 filing fee for this action. It also directed that funds not be deducted or held from his prison trust account for this lawsuit. The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees. It directed the Clerk to enter judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.