Pazhani v. Infosys Americas

Background

K. Pazhani was proceeding without a lawyer and had permission to proceed without paying filing fees. Judge Valerie Caproni had previously directed the Clerk to prepare service materials for certain defendants and had allowed Pazhani to file an amended complaint. After the deadline was extended, Pazhani filed a first amended complaint and asked the U.S. Marshals Service to serve all defendants, including defendants first named in that amended complaint.

The Marshals Service apparently served the summons and original complaint on Next Level Business Service, Inc. Next Level appeared and agreed to respond to the amended complaint by January 15, 2021. The docket did not show that the Marshals Service had completed service on any other defendant.

Order

The court explained that a plaintiff proceeding without paying filing fees may rely on the court and the Marshals Service to complete service. Because Pazhani had not provided service addresses for the defendants who had not been served, the court directed him to provide the known addresses to the Clerk through the Pro Se Office by January 4, 2021.

After receiving the addresses, the Clerk was directed to prepare a U.S. Marshals Service process receipt and return form for each defendant whose address Pazhani provided or whose address the Clerk could readily obtain from publicly available sources. The Clerk was also directed to issue an amended summons and deliver the necessary paperwork to the Marshals Service for service on those defendants other than Next Level.

Disposition

The court extended the time to serve the remaining originally named defendants and the newly named defendants until 90 days after an amended summons was issued. The court stated that, if the amended complaint was not served within that period, Pazhani should request another extension. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman entered this order. This was a service-related procedural order; it did not decide the underlying claims.