Starkes v. Annucci
- Vincent Briccetti
- 7:19-cv-07270
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Starkes v. Byrd, Judge Briccetti ordered Starkes to update his address and denied payment-free status for an appeal.
Quentin Starkes, who was required to provide a current address and was denied payment-free status for an appeal; the case was not dismissed by this order.
What happened
In Quentin Starkes v. C.O. Byrd, C.O. Nieves, and Waal Rivera, Starkes was representing himself and had been allowed to proceed without paying filing fees. He had told the court that his address changed, but mail sent to his last known address was returned because he was no longer there. The court noted that he had not opposed the defendants’ motion to dismiss or asked for more time.
The court ordered Starkes to provide his current address in writing by July 9, 2020. The court warned that failing to do so could lead to dismissal for failing to pursue the case or follow court orders. The opinion states that information from the Federal Bureau of Prisons website suggested Starkes might be at United States Penitentiary Canaan in Waymart, Pennsylvania, but it did not determine that this was his current location.
Judge Vincent L. Briccetti also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied Starkes payment-free status for an appeal. The order did not itself dismiss the case.
The detailed version
- Starkes v. Annucci · No. 7:19-cv-07270
- Vincent Briccetti
- June 9, 2020
Background
Quentin Starkes filed the action on August 2, 2019, while incarcerated at Westchester County Jail. The opinion states that he was representing himself and proceeding without paying filing fees. On November 18, 2019, he notified the court that his address had changed and gave an address at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The court’s December 11, 2019, service order and accompanying instructions told Starkes that he had to notify the court in writing of any address change and that the case could be dismissed if he failed to do so. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss. On June 4, 2020, the court treated that motion as fully submitted and unopposed because Starkes had not filed an opposition or requested an extension.
On June 8, 2020, mail containing an April 29, 2020, order extending Starkes’s time to oppose the motion was returned as undeliverable because he was no longer at the Brooklyn detention center. The court stated that information on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website suggested he might be at United States Penitentiary Canaan in Waymart, Pennsylvania.
Order
The court ordered Starkes to update his address in writing by July 9, 2020. It warned that failure to comply could result in dismissal for failure to prosecute or failure to comply with court orders under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). The order did not dismiss the action.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied Starkes’s status allowing an appeal without paying the required fees. The court directed its chambers to mail the order to the address on the docket and to the Canaan address identified in the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.