Harris v. Pike County Court of Common Pleas
- Louis Stanton
- 1:20-cv-03987
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Harris v. Pike County Court of Common Pleas, Judge Stanton denied reconsideration because the transfer ended this court’s jurisdiction.
Keeba Harris’s request to reconsider the transfer of her case; the order also terminated other pending matters under the docket and limited further submissions.
What happened
Keeba Harris, representing herself, asked the Southern District of New York to reconsider its June 8, 2020 order transferring her case to the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The court explained that a court that transfers a case generally loses jurisdiction over it once the transfer occurs. It said Harris filed her request about seven months after the electronic transfer, so any challenge to the transfer had to be made in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Judge Louis L. Stanton denied Harris’s request for reconsideration. The court also terminated all other pending matters and directed the Clerk not to accept further submissions under this docket number, except papers directed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The detailed version
- Harris v. Pike County Court of Common Pleas · No. 1:20-cv-03987
- Louis Stanton
- Mar. 18, 2021
Background
Keeba Harris filed the action without a lawyer. On June 8, 2020, the Southern District of New York transferred the matter to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. On January 8, 2021, the court received Harris’s letter asking it to reconsider the transfer order.
Jurisdiction after transfer
The court stated that transferring a case removes the transferring court’s jurisdiction over the action. It explained that the transferring court retains jurisdiction to review the transfer only if the party seeking review acts to stay the transfer before the papers are received by the clerk of the receiving court. Here, the Clerk electronically transferred the case to the Middle District of Pennsylvania on June 8, 2020, and Harris sought reconsideration approximately seven months later. The court therefore concluded that it no longer had jurisdiction to consider her request and that any challenge to the transfer had to be made in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Ruling
Judge Louis L. Stanton denied Harris’s request for reconsideration of the transfer order. The court directed the Clerk to mail Harris a copy of the order and note service on the docket, terminated all other pending matters, and directed the Clerk not to accept further submissions under the docket number except papers directed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The order did not address the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.