Campbell v. State of New York City
- Jesse Furman
- 1:19-cv-05431
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Campbell v. City of New York, Judge Furman ordered Barry Campbell to update his address or face dismissal for failing to prosecute.
Barry Campbell, whose case remained pending but who was required to provide an updated address within 30 days to avoid the court's threatened dismissal for failure to prosecute.
What happened
In Campbell v. City of New York, Barry Campbell was representing himself and had filed a complaint while detained at the Manhattan Detention Center. The court had allowed him to proceed without paying filing fees and to amend his complaint, but later mailings were returned and he stopped communicating with the court.
The court could not locate Campbell through the New York City or New York State inmate-lookup systems. Because Campbell had not updated his address or otherwise shown that he intended to continue the case, the court ordered him to provide an updated address within 30 days.
Judge Jesse M. Furman warned that the court would dismiss the action without prejudice for failure to prosecute if Campbell did not comply. The order itself did not dismiss the case; it directed the Clerk to mail Campbell a copy and make the order publicly available.
The detailed version
- Campbell v. State of New York City · No. 1:19-cv-05431
- Jesse Furman
- Dec. 5, 2019
Background
Barry Campbell filed this complaint while he was a pretrial detainee at the Manhattan Detention Center and was proceeding without a lawyer. The court granted him permission to proceed without paying the filing fee and later granted him permission to amend his complaint. Campbell also asked the court to appoint a lawyer; the court denied that request without prejudice because the record was not sufficiently developed to assess his likelihood of success.
The court mailed Campbell orders and information at the Manhattan Detention Center. Later mailings were returned as undeliverable on July 29, August 13, and November 22, 2019. The court also unsuccessfully searched New York City and New York State inmate-lookup systems for Campbell. Campbell had not updated his address or otherwise communicated with the court, and the court stated that it was unclear whether he intended to continue the case.
Rule and Analysis
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) permits a district court to dismiss an action for failure to prosecute after notifying the plaintiff. The court cited decisions stating that a plaintiff must notify the court when an address changes and that failing to do so can justify dismissal.
Order
Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered Campbell to update his address of record within 30 days of the order. The court stated that if Campbell failed to comply, it would dismiss the action without prejudice for failure to prosecute. The court did not dismiss the action in this order. It directed the Clerk of Court to mail Campbell a copy of the order and to docket it as an opinion so it would be freely available to the public.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.