Vang v. Weaver

Background

Pakuja Crystal Vang filed this self-represented lawsuit while describing herself as homeless but residing within New York, New York. She asserted claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the New York State and City Human Rights Laws, and other unspecified state-law provisions. She alleged retaliation and employment discrimination arising from her former employment with Valdese Weaver in North Carolina.

Vang named Valdese Weaver; the “USA Government,” which the court understood to mean the United States of America; and the Solicitor General of the United States. The court had already allowed Vang to proceed without prepaying filing fees.

Removal of Two Defendants

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 21, a court may add or remove a party when doing so is justified by the circumstances. The court found that Vang alleged nothing about the United States of America or the Solicitor General. It therefore removed both of them as defendants, concluding that the alleged injuries arose from Vang’s former employer and had nothing to do with those two defendants.

Venue and Transfer

Venue is the proper geographic federal court location for a lawsuit. For Vang’s Title VII, Americans with Disabilities Act, and employment-related Rehabilitation Act claims, the court explained that venue could lie where the alleged employment violation occurred, where relevant employment records were kept, or where Vang would have worked absent the alleged violation. Vang appeared to allege that the relevant events, records, and expected work location were at a Valdese Weaver plant in Valdese or Connelly Springs, in Burke County, North Carolina. Burke County is within the Western District of North Carolina.

The court applied the general venue rule to Vang’s Family and Medical Leave Act and state-law claims. It found that Valdese Weaver appeared to reside in Burke County and that a substantial part, if not all, of the alleged events occurred there. The court therefore concluded that the Southern District of New York was not a proper venue for any of the remaining claims.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), when a lawsuit is filed in the wrong venue, a court may dismiss it or, when justice favors that result, transfer it to a district where it could have been filed. Because the Western District of North Carolina was a proper venue for all remaining claims, the court transferred those claims there rather than dismissing them.

Ruling

Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the removal of the United States of America and the Solicitor General of the United States as defendants under Rule 21. She directed the Clerk of Court to transfer Vang’s remaining claims against Valdese Weaver to the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The order closed the action in the Southern District of New York, and no summons was to issue from that court.

The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Vang permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The opinion did not decide whether Vang’s employment or discrimination claims had merit.