Thomas v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-06305
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Thomas v. Deutsche Bank, Judge McMahon dismissed Thomas’s duplicate lawsuit without prejudice because a similar case was pending.
Eugene Thomas’s duplicative lawsuit against Deutsche Bank National Trust Company was dismissed without prejudice; his separate pending action under case number 20-CV-6024 was not dismissed by this order.
What happened
In Thomas v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Eugene Thomas, representing himself, sued Deutsche Bank for breach of contract, quiet title, and “slander of title.” He sought court orders declaring rights and requiring action.
Thomas had already filed a substantially similar lawsuit against the same defendant. That earlier case had been transferred from the Eastern District of New York to the Southern District of New York and was still pending under case number 20-CV-6024.
Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed this lawsuit without prejudice as duplicative, leaving Thomas’s pending earlier case unaffected. The court also ended all other pending matters and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Thomas v. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company · No. 1:20-cv-06305
- Colleen McMahon
- Aug. 19, 2020
Background
Eugene Thomas, proceeding without a lawyer, sued Deutsche Bank National Trust Company for breach of contract, quiet title, and “slander of title.” He requested injunctive and declaratory relief.
Thomas had filed a substantially similar complaint against the same defendant in the Eastern District of New York. That court transferred the earlier action to the Southern District of New York on August 3, 2020, where it remained pending as case number 20-CV-6024.
Ruling
The court concluded that further litigation of the new lawsuit would serve no useful purpose because it duplicated the pending action. The court dismissed this action without prejudice to Thomas’s pending action under case number 20-CV-6024. It also terminated all other pending matters.
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and therefore denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees. Judge Colleen McMahon signed the order on August 19, 2020.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.