Swinson v. City of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-01788
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Judge McMahon dismissed Swinson v. City of New York without prejudice because it duplicated another pending lawsuit.
Randy Swinson’s duplicate lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, while his substantially similar pending action under case number 20-CV-0994 (UA) remained available. He was not charged the filing fee for this action, and no funds were to be deducted from his prison account for it.
What happened
In Swinson v. City of New York, Randy Swinson, who was incarcerated and representing himself, sued under a federal civil-rights law, claiming that the defendants denied him access to social services.
The court found that Swinson had filed a substantially similar complaint against the same defendants in a different pending case, number 20-CV-0994 (UA). It concluded that continuing this duplicate lawsuit would serve no useful purpose.
Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed this case without prejudice to the pending case, vacated an earlier order, and directed that Swinson not be charged the filing fee or have funds deducted from his prison account for this lawsuit. The court also denied fee-free status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Swinson v. City of New York · No. 1:20-cv-01788
- Colleen McMahon
- Mar. 4, 2020
Background
Randy Swinson, who was incarcerated in the Manhattan Detention Center and proceeded without a lawyer, brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleged that the defendants were denying him access to social services. The court had previously ordered him to resubmit documents with original signatures and either pay the filing fee or submit an amended application to proceed without paying the fee, along with a prisoner authorization.
Reason for dismissal
The court stated that Swinson had submitted a substantially similar complaint that was pending under case number 20-CV-0994 (UA). Because the two complaints raised the same claims against the same defendants, the court found that further litigation of this case would serve no useful purpose. The court did not decide the merits of Swinson’s claims.
Ruling
Judge Colleen McMahon vacated the March 3, 2020 order and dismissed the complaint without prejudice as duplicative, preserving Swinson’s pending action under case number 20-CV-0994 (UA). The court directed the Clerk not to charge the $350 filing fee for this action and directed the official with custody of Swinson not to deduct or encumber funds from his prison trust account for this lawsuit. All other pending matters were terminated. The court certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.