McDaniel v. The People of the State of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-08166
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
McDaniel v. The People: Chief Judge McMahon dismissed the duplicate complaint without prejudice and denied fee-waiver status for any appeal.
Curtis McDaniel’s duplicate civil-rights lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice; his earlier related case remained pending, and he was not charged the filing fee for this action.
What happened
In McDaniel v. The People of the State of New York, Curtis McDaniel filed a civil-rights lawsuit without a lawyer alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and excessive force. The court found that he had already raised the same claims against the same defendants in a pending case.
The court dismissed this complaint without prejudice because it was duplicative, leaving McDaniel’s earlier case pending. It also directed that he not be charged the $350 filing fee for this case and that any previously authorized deductions from his prison account for this lawsuit be suspended.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees.
The detailed version
- McDaniel v. The People of the State of New York · No. 1:19-cv-08166
- Colleen McMahon
- Feb. 14, 2020
Background
Curtis McDaniel, who was incarcerated at Rikers Island and represented himself, brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The court had previously allowed him to proceed without paying the filing fee. He alleged that he was falsely arrested and imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted, and subjected to excessive force after a dispute with his roommate. The opinion states that the charges against him were later dismissed on speedy-trial grounds.
The opinion explains that McDaniel had already asserted the same claims against the same defendants in a separate case, No. 19-CV-3526, which remained pending. In that earlier case, the court had ordered service on the City of New York and Detective Quilty, dismissed claims against other defendants on immunity grounds, and later stayed the matter while the Civilian Complaint Review Board investigated. The court concluded that the present complaint appeared to be a duplicate submission and that litigating it would serve no useful purpose.
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice as duplicative and stated that the dismissal was without prejudice to McDaniel’s pending case under docket number 19-CV-3526. The court did not decide the merits of his false-arrest, false-imprisonment, malicious-prosecution, or excessive-force claims.
Because the court believed the duplicate complaint was filed by mistake or that McDaniel did not intend to bring a second lawsuit, it directed the Clerk not to charge the $350 filing fee for this action. It also directed the official having custody of McDaniel to suspend any previously authorized deduction from his prison trust account for this lawsuit. The court additionally certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees. The court reminded McDaniel that a prisoner must pay the full filing fee for a new civil action even when allowed to proceed without paying it upfront, and suggested seeking permission to amend the pending case after its stay ended.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.