Molina v. Harvard Maintenance
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-10803
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Molina v. Harvard Maintenance, Judge McMahon dismissed the duplicate discrimination complaint without prejudice and denied fee-free appeal status.
Iris Molina’s duplicate lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice; her separate pending case under docket number 1:20-CV-10993 (LLS) was not dismissed by this order. The order also denied fee-free appeal status.
What happened
In Molina v. Harvard Maintenance, Iris Molina, representing herself, claimed that her employer discriminated against her because of her national origin under federal and New York law.
The court found that Molina had already filed a virtually identical case against Harvard Maintenance, which was pending under docket number 1:20-CV-10993 (LLS). It dismissed this duplicate lawsuit without prejudice to that pending case.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Molina permission to appeal without paying the required fees.
The detailed version
- Molina v. Harvard Maintenance · No. 1:20-cv-10803
- Colleen McMahon
- Jan. 7, 2021
Background
Iris Molina brought this action without a lawyer against Harvard Maintenance. She alleged that her employer discriminated against her because of her national origin, violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New York State Human Rights Law.
Duplicate lawsuit
The court stated that Molina had submitted a virtually identical complaint against Harvard Maintenance in an earlier case, docket number 1:20-CV-10993 (LLS), which was still pending before another judge of the same court. Because the two cases raised the same claims, the court concluded that litigating this action would serve no useful purpose.
Ruling
The court dismissed Molina’s complaint as duplicative, without prejudice to her pending case under docket number 1:20-CV-10993 (LLS). The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to pursue an appeal without paying the required filing fees. Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk of Court to mail Molina a copy of the order and record service on the docket.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.