Robinson v. Freidman
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-10418
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Robinson v. Freidman, Judge McMahon ordered the filing docketed in an earlier case and administratively closed this case without prejudice.
James Robinson, the Clerk of Court, and the parties in the earlier related case were affected. The order moved Robinson’s filing into the earlier case and administratively closed this case.
What happened
Robinson v. Freidman involved James Robinson’s amended complaint, which the court received after an earlier case had been dismissed with permission to amend.
Because the filing was not labeled clearly as an amended complaint and did not identify the earlier case number, the Clerk assigned it a new case number. The court directed the Clerk to docket it in the earlier case instead.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon ordered this case administratively closed without prejudice to the pending earlier matter. She also directed that Robinson not be charged the filing fee for this case and denied permission to appeal without paying the fee.
The detailed version
- Robinson v. Freidman · No. 1:19-cv-10418
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 12, 2019
Background
James Robinson, who was representing himself and was incarcerated at Auburn Correctional Facility, had filed an earlier case. On September 24, 2019, Judge Karas dismissed that complaint and allowed Robinson thirty days to file an amended complaint.
The court received Robinson’s amended complaint on November 7, 2019. The complaint was assigned a new civil case number because Robinson did not label it as an amended complaint or list the earlier case number. The opinion states that the complaint was dated November 2, 2019, and was treated as filed on that date under the rule for prisoners’ filings delivered to prison officials for mailing. Robinson did identify the earlier docket number on page 9.
Court’s action
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk of Court to assign the matter to her docket, mail Robinson a copy of the order, and record service on the docket. She further directed the Clerk to docket the filing as an amended complaint in the earlier case, No. 18-CV-2409 (KMK).
The court ordered the Clerk to administratively close this case without prejudice to the pending earlier matter. The opinion also states that Robinson did not submit an application to proceed without paying the filing fee or the required prisoner authorization. The Clerk was nevertheless directed not to charge him the $350 filing fee for this action. The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying the filing fee.
This order handled the filing and docketing of Robinson’s amended complaint; it did not decide the claims in that complaint.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.