Lee v. Department of Corrections

Background

The court received an amended complaint from Plaintiff and letters from three people seeking to be added as plaintiffs. The court stated that these filings appeared to have been submitted before Plaintiff received its November 9, 2020 order separating the claims of other people detained at the Vernon C. Bain Center whose names appeared in the complaint.

The amended complaint named 13 additional detainees. A footnote stated that it listed 14 individuals because Joe Brewton was listed twice.

Order

For the same reasons stated in the November 9 order, the court ordered the claims of the 13 additional plaintiffs separated into individual civil cases. Severance means splitting claims into separate cases. The court stated that the new cases would proceed independently and that the plaintiffs would not be treated as co-plaintiffs unless the court later ordered otherwise. The court noted that the cases could still be treated as related or combined for consideration or trial if appropriate.

The Clerk of Court was directed to open separate cases for Allen Nimmons, James Evans, Luis Charles, Joe Brewton, Mario Espinal, George Macedon, Flores Jose, Jonathan Morales, Cabral Victor, Parris V. Colon, Dayquan Johnson, Pham Lam, and Juan Ortiz. The Clerk was also directed to docket the amended complaint and order in the new cases, file the amended complaint in previously separated cases, file specified letters in the respective cases, and mail the order to Plaintiff and the 13 new plaintiffs.

Disposition

Judge Stewart D. Aaron entered the order directing severance and related docketing and mailing steps. The opinion did not resolve the merits of any plaintiff’s underlying claims.