Syville v. City of New York
- Freeman
- 1:19-cv-09988-VEC-VF
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Syville v. City of New York, Magistrate Judge Freeman ordered Marshals to serve Solomon Waterton and extended the service deadline.
Alphonso Syville, Solomon Waterton, the Clerk of Court, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
What happened
In Syville v. City of New York, Alphonso Syville was proceeding without a lawyer and without paying filing fees in advance. Most individual defendants had accepted service through the Department of Social Services, but Solomon Waterton had not been reached.
The court said Syville could rely on the court and the U.S. Marshals Service to serve Waterton. It extended the service deadline to 90 days after an amended summons is issued and identified the documents that must be served.
Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman directed the Clerk of Court to prepare the service paperwork, send the necessary documents to the Marshals Service, and mail Syville a copy of the order and an information package. The court also denied permission to appeal without paying fees for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Syville v. City of New York · No. 1:19-cv-09988-VEC-VF
- Freeman
- May 1, 2020
Background
Alphonso Syville, who was proceeding without a lawyer and had permission to proceed without paying filing fees in advance, filed a Second Amended Complaint. The individual defendants named in the complaint were or had been employed by the Department of Social Services. All except Solomon Waterton had waived service through that agency. Counsel for the City of New York reported that the agency had been unable to reach Waterton to obtain his consent to waive service.
Service of Process
Because Syville was proceeding without prepaying fees, the court explained that he could rely on the court and the U.S. Marshals Service to serve Waterton. Although Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4 generally requires service within 90 days after a complaint is filed, the court extended the time in this case to 90 days after an Amended Summons is issued. The court stated that Syville should request an extension if the Second Amended Complaint is not served within that period.
The court also noted that an earlier order had treated the Second Amended Complaint as including documents attached to Syville’s original complaint. Service on Waterton therefore had to include the Amended Summons, the Second Amended Complaint, the March 18, 2020 order, and the attachments to the original complaint.
Order
The court directed the Clerk of Court to mail Syville a copy of the order and an information package, complete a U.S. Marshals Service process form with Waterton’s address, issue an Amended Summons, and deliver the required paperwork to the Marshals Service so it could serve Waterton. The court also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman signed the order.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.