Evans v. U.S. Department of Education
- Laura Swain
- 1:19-cv-10896
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Evans v. U.S. Department of Education, Judge Swain gave pro se plaintiff Akusia Evans until April 30, 2021, to properly serve the department.
Akusia Evans and the United States Department of Education; the order primarily affects Evans’s deadline and requirements for serving the defendant.
What happened
In Evans v. U.S. Department of Education, Akusia Evans, who was representing herself, filed proof that she had served the Department of Justice’s Office of the General Counsel by mail. The court said proper service on the United States also required serving the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The court found that Evans’s proof did not show service on that United States attorney. Because Evans was representing herself, the court gave her one more extension to complete service under the federal service rule.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain set April 30, 2021, as the deadline for Evans to file proof of proper and complete service. The order warned that the court would dismiss the case if she missed that deadline and referred her to a New York Legal Assistance Group clinic for possible assistance.
The detailed version
- Evans v. U.S. Department of Education · No. 1:19-cv-10896
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 18, 2021
Background Akusia Evans was representing herself in an action against the United States Department of Education. The court had previously ordered her to address problems with service of the summons and complaint, including in an order requiring her to explain why the case should not be dismissed.
Evans filed proof stating that she had served the summons on the Office of the General Counsel of the United States Department of Justice by certified first-class mail on or about January 11, 2021.
Service issue Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(i) requires service on both the United States attorney for the district where the case was filed and the Attorney General of the United States in Washington, D.C. The court said Evans’s proof did not show that she had served the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Ruling Because Evans was representing herself, the court provided one further extension of time to complete proper service on the defendant. The court required her to file proof of proper and complete service by April 30, 2021. It warned that, if she failed to meet that deadline, it would dismiss the case for failure to complete timely and proper service. The court also directed her to information about the New York Legal Assistance Group’s clinic for people representing themselves.
Disposition The order granted Evans one further extension to complete service and set a conditional deadline for filing proof of service. It did not state that the case was dismissed in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.