Miller v. Great Meadow CF
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-00112
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Miller v. Great Meadow, Judge McMahon transferred Miller’s civil-rights case to the Northern District of New York because venue was improper.
Richard Miller’s case was moved from the Southern District of New York to the Northern District of New York. The transferee court was left to decide whether Miller could proceed without prepaying fees.
What happened
In Miller v. Great Meadow, Richard Miller, representing himself, alleged that a correction officer at Great Meadow Correctional Facility sexually assaulted him. He brought the case under a federal civil-rights law while incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility.
The court ruled that the case did not belong in the Southern District of New York because Miller did not allege that a defendant lived there or that a substantial part of the events occurred there. Great Meadow is in Comstock, New York, which is in the Northern District of New York.
Judge Colleen McMahon transferred the action to the Northern District of New York. She also directed that no summons issue from her court, left the fee-prepayment question to the transferee court, and denied fee-free status for an appeal from the transfer order.
The detailed version
- Miller v. Great Meadow CF · No. 1:20-cv-00112
- Colleen McMahon
- Jan. 8, 2020
Background
Richard Miller, who was incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility, brought this action without a lawyer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal civil-rights statute. He alleged that a correction officer at Great Meadow Correctional Facility sexually assaulted him. The defendant is identified in the caption as Great Meadow.
Venue analysis
The court applied 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b), which identifies the federal districts where a civil case may be filed. Those include a district where a defendant resides, when the statutory conditions are met, or a district where a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred.
The court stated that Miller did not allege that any defendant resided in the Southern District of New York or that a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to his claim occurred there. Great Meadow is in Comstock, New York, in Washington County, which lies in the Northern District of New York. The court therefore concluded that venue was proper in the Northern District of New York under § 1391(b)(2), not in the Southern District.
Ruling
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), the court transferred the action to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. The order directs the Clerk to transfer the action and states that the order closes the case in the Southern District of New York. It does not decide whether Miller’s underlying allegation is valid.
Miller submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees and a prisoner authorization, but the opinion states that both were incomplete. The court left the decision about whether he may proceed without prepaying fees to the transferee court. It also directed that no summons issue from the Southern District of New York and certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, denying fee-free status for purposes of an appeal from the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.