Williams, Jr. v. The City of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-01245
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Williams, Jr. v. City of New York, Judge McMahon dismissed the duplicate civil-rights complaint without prejudice and waived its filing fee.
Alexander Williams, Jr. and the defendants named in the complaint. The order also directed the Clerk and the official responsible for Williams’s custody not to charge or deduct funds for this lawsuit.
What happened
Williams, Jr. v. The City of New York involved a pro se civil-rights complaint filed under federal law by Alexander Williams, Jr., who was incarcerated at the Manhattan Detention Center. He alleged that the defendants violated his rights, but he had already filed a substantially similar case involving the same defendants and claims.
Because the new lawsuit duplicated the pending case, the court dismissed it without prejudice to the pending case. The court said Williams could seek to amend the complaint in that case, consistent with the federal rule governing amendments. The Clerk was directed not to charge the filing fee for this lawsuit, and the prison was directed not to deduct or hold funds for it.
Judge McMahon granted Williams limited fee-waiver status for purposes of dismissing this complaint, but denied that status for an appeal and certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The court did not address the substance of Williams’s civil-rights allegations.
The detailed version
- Williams, Jr. v. The City of New York · No. 1:20-cv-01245
- Colleen McMahon
- Feb. 13, 2020
Background
Alexander Williams, Jr., who was incarcerated at the Manhattan Detention Center, filed this action without a lawyer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the federal law commonly used to seek relief for violations of constitutional rights by state or local officials. The opinion says he alleged that the defendants violated his rights. It does not describe the specific alleged violations.
Reason for dismissal
The court found that Williams had previously filed a substantially similar complaint against the same defendants asserting the same claims. That earlier case was pending under docket number 20-CV-516. Because the new complaint duplicated the pending case, the court concluded that filing and litigating the new lawsuit would serve no useful purpose.
Ruling and other orders
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice to Williams’s pending case under docket number 20-CV-516. The opinion states that Williams could seek to amend the complaint in that pending case to modify the parties or claims, to the extent permitted by Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The Clerk of Court was directed not to charge Williams the $350 filing fee for this action. The official responsible for his custody was also directed not to deduct or hold money from his prison trust account for this lawsuit. The court granted Williams fee-waiver status for the limited purpose of dismissing this complaint, but denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. It also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
Effect of the order
This order ended the duplicate lawsuit, while leaving the pending case under docket number 20-CV-516 unaffected according to the stated terms of the dismissal. The court did not decide whether Williams’s underlying civil-rights claims were valid.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.