Sheldon v. Mahmood
- 3:23-cv-04019
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Sheldon v. Mahmood, the court, whose judge is not identified, transferred the prisoner’s civil-rights case to the Northern District of California.
The transfer affects Jeffrey Theodore Sheldon and the defendants because the case will proceed in the Northern District of California rather than the Eastern District of California. The opinion does not identify the defendants beyond A. Mahmood and others.
What happened
Sheldon v. Mahmood is a civil-rights case brought by a state prisoner without a lawyer under a federal civil-rights law. The opinion states that none of the defendants lived in the Eastern District of California and that the claim arose in Marin County.
The court concluded that the case should have been filed in the Northern District of California. It transferred the matter there in the interest of justice.
The order was issued on August 8, 2023, by a magistrate judge whose name is not identified in the opinion. The court did not decide the underlying civil-rights claims.
The detailed version
- Sheldon v. Mahmood · No. 3:23-cv-04019
- Aug. 8, 2023
Background
Jeffrey Theodore Sheldon, identified as a state prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, filed a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The opinion states that the defendants did not reside in the Eastern District of California and that the claim arose in Marin County, which is in the Northern District of California.
Venue analysis
The court applied the federal venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). That statute identifies the federal districts where a civil case may be filed, including a district where a defendant resides or where a substantial part of the events occurred. Because the defendants did not reside in the Eastern District and the claim arose in Marin County, the court determined that the case should have been filed in the Northern District of California.
Disposition
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), a federal court may transfer a case filed in the wrong district to the correct district in the interest of justice. The court ordered that this matter be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The order did not decide the merits of Sheldon’s civil-rights claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.