Rosenberg v. City of New York

Background

Rudy Rosenberg, Jacqueline Rosenberg, and Eltha Jordan brought the action without lawyers. The complaint asserted claims arising from alleged conspiracies related to Rudy Rosenberg’s eviction and arrests. The defendants included the City of New York and numerous individuals.

Reason for dismissal

The court stated that the plaintiffs had recently submitted a substantially similar complaint against many of the same defendants and arising from the same events. That related case was pending under docket number 20-CV-3911 (CM). Because this complaint raised the same claims against many of the same defendants, the court concluded that litigating this duplicate lawsuit would serve no useful purpose.

The court noted that claims arising from the same events should be included in one lawsuit. It explained that, if the plaintiffs wanted to add or change claims or defendants in the pending case, they could seek to amend that complaint under Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Disposition

The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice as duplicative. This means the dismissal itself did not bar the plaintiffs from pursuing the related pending case identified by the court. The court also terminated any outstanding motions.

The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied the plaintiffs fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not decide the merits of the alleged conspiracies or the claims concerning the eviction and arrests.