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N.D. Cal.Procedural orderFiled Apr. 20, 2023

Flournoy v. Marin County

Judge
Charles Breyer
Docket
3:23-cv-01942
Court
U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
Pages
2
Civil ProcedurePro Se
In one sentence

Flournoy v. Marin County was transferred for improper venue to the Northern District of California by Judge Newman.

Who this affects

James Henry Flournoy’s case was moved from the Eastern District of California to the Northern District of California; the order did not decide the merits of his civil-rights claims.

What happened

In James Henry Flournoy v. Marin County, James Henry Flournoy, a county-jail inmate representing himself, filed a civil-rights lawsuit under federal law in the Eastern District of California. He also asked to proceed without paying the filing fee.

The court said the claim arose in Contra Costa County, which is in the Northern District of California. Because the case was filed in the wrong federal district, the court determined that it should have been filed there.

The court transferred the matter to the Northern District of California under the federal venue statute. The order was signed by Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
Flournoy v. Marin County · No. 3:23-cv-01942
Judge
Charles Breyer
Date
Apr. 20, 2023

Background

James Henry Flournoy, a county-jail inmate proceeding without a lawyer, filed a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He also filed an application to proceed without paying the filing fee under 28 U.S.C. § 1915.

Venue

The court applied the federal venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). It found that Flournoy’s claim arose in Contra Costa County, which is within the Northern District of California. The court therefore concluded that the action should have been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Disposition

The court stated that, in the interest of justice, a federal court may transfer a complaint filed in the wrong district under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a). It ordered that the matter be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The opinion’s signature identifies the issuing judge as Kendall J. Newman, a United States magistrate judge.

The authoritative version

Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

Open opinion PDF →
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