Turner v. Paley
- Edward Chen
- 3:21-cv-01525
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Turner v. Paley, Judge Peterson transferred the prisoner’s civil-rights case to the Northern District of California because the claims arose there.
Anthony D.L. Turner and the defendants are affected because the case will proceed in the Northern District of California rather than the Eastern District of California.
What happened
In Anthony D.L. Turner v. Maya Paley, et al., Turner, a state prisoner without a lawyer, filed a civil-rights case under a federal civil-rights law.
The court said Turner’s claims arose in Napa County, which is in the Northern District of California. Because the case was filed in the wrong district, the court transferred it to that district.
Judge Jeremy D. Peterson ordered the transfer. The order addressed the proper court location and did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Turner v. Paley · No. 3:21-cv-01525
- Edward Chen
- Mar. 1, 2021
Background
Anthony D.L. Turner, a state prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, filed a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The opinion states that his claims arose in Napa County.
Venue analysis
The court applied the federal venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). That statute identifies the federal districts where a civil action may be filed, including a district where a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claims occurred. The court determined that Napa County is in the Northern District of California and that the action therefore should have been filed there rather than in the Eastern District of California.
Disposition
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. The court ordered that the matter be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The order resolved venue and did not rule on the merits of Turner’s civil-rights claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.