Murphy v. Spaulding
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-10856
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Murphy v. Spaulding, Judge McMahon dismissed the duplicate constitutional-rights lawsuit without prejudice because a similar case was already pending.
Mark P. Murphy’s duplicate lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice; his pending case under docket number 20-CV-9013 (LLS) was identified as the case to proceed, and he was not charged a filing fee for this action.
What happened
In Murphy v. Spaulding, Mark P. Murphy, who was incarcerated and represented himself, sued L.A. Spaulding and others under a federal civil-rights law. He alleged that the defendants violated his constitutional rights on September 23, 2020.
The court found that Murphy had already filed a substantially similar lawsuit against the same defendants, alleging that they failed to protect him from another detainee. That earlier case was still pending under docket number 20-CV-9013 (LLS), so the court dismissed this duplicate lawsuit without prejudice to the pending case.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ordered that Murphy not be charged the $350 filing fee for this case and that prison officials not deduct money from his prison account for it. Judge McMahon further denied fee-free status for any appeal because the court certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Murphy v. Spaulding · No. 1:20-cv-10856
- Colleen McMahon
- Jan. 4, 2021
Background
Mark P. Murphy, who was incarcerated at the Westchester County Jail and proceeded without a lawyer, brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law allowing claims that constitutional rights were violated. He alleged that L.A. Spaulding and other defendants violated his constitutional rights on September 23, 2020. The court had previously allowed Murphy to proceed without prepaying the filing fee.
After granting that request, the court discovered that Murphy had already submitted a substantially similar complaint against the defendants. The earlier complaint alleged that the defendants failed to protect him from another detainee. That earlier case was pending before Judge Louis L. Stanton under docket number 20-CV-9013 (LLS).
Ruling
The court dismissed Murphy’s complaint without prejudice because it duplicated the claims in the pending case. The order states that the dismissal was without prejudice to Murphy’s pending case, and that no useful purpose would be served by filing and litigating the duplicate lawsuit. The court did not decide whether Murphy’s constitutional claims were valid.
Fees and Appeal
Because the court believed Murphy may have filed the duplicate complaint by mistake, it ordered that he not be charged the $350 filing fee for this action. It also ordered that the official having custody of Murphy not deduct or hold funds from his prison trust account for this lawsuit. The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Murphy permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.