Hill v. J. Beltran
- Yvonne Rogers
- 4:20-cv-06557
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Cymeon Hill v. E. Perez, Judge Claire transferred the civil-rights case to the Northern District of California because venue was improper.
Cymeon Hill and the defendants named in the action are affected because the case was transferred from the Eastern District of California to the Northern District of California; the underlying claims were not decided.
What happened
In Cymeon Hill v. E. Perez, Cymeon Hill, a civil detainee representing himself, filed a civil-rights lawsuit and asked to proceed without paying the filing fee. The case was filed in the Eastern District of California.
The court said the defendants were located in Monterey County and that the events involved in the claim occurred there. Monterey County is in the Northern District of California, so the case was filed in the wrong federal district.
The court transferred the case to the Northern District of California in the interest of justice. Judge Allison Claire issued the order; the order did not decide the underlying civil-rights claims.
The detailed version
- Hill v. J. Beltran · No. 4:20-cv-06557
- Yvonne Rogers
- Sept. 15, 2020
Background
Cymeon Hill, identified as a civil detainee proceeding without a lawyer, filed a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Hill also applied to proceed without paying the filing fee. The opinion does not rule on that application.
Venue Analysis
Federal venue rules generally allow a civil action to be filed where a defendant resides, where a substantial part of the events occurred, or, in limited circumstances, where a defendant is subject to the court’s personal jurisdiction. The court stated that the defendants were located in Monterey County and that the claim arose there. Monterey County is in the Northern District of California, not the Eastern District of California.
Disposition
The court determined that the action should have been filed in the Northern District of California. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), a federal court may transfer a case filed in the wrong district when doing so serves the interests of justice. Judge Allison Claire ordered that the matter be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The order did not reach the merits of Hill’s civil-rights claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.