Boone v. Department of Corrections
- Ronnie Abrams
- 1:20-cv-09409
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Boone v. Department of Corrections, Magistrate Judge Aaron dismissed claims against the Department, added New York City, and ordered service on other defendants.
Dewayne Boone; the New York City Department of Correction; the City of New York; Commissioner Cynthia Brann; Patricia Yang; and Margaret Egan.
What happened
In Boone v. Department of Corrections, Dewayne Boone, representing himself, claimed that the defendants were not protecting him from contracting COVID-19 while he was detained. He brought the action under a federal civil-rights law.
The court screened Boone’s complaint after allowing him to proceed without paying filing fees upfront. It dismissed the claims against the New York City Department of Correction because that agency cannot be sued, but directed the clerk to add the City of New York as a defendant. The court also ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to serve Patricia Yang and Margaret Egan and requested that the City and Commissioner Cynthia Brann waive service.
Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron issued the Order of Service on March 30, 2021. The order addressed which entities could be sued and how defendants would be served; it did not decide whether Boone’s COVID-19 allegations were legally or factually correct.
The detailed version
- Boone v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-09409
- Ronnie Abrams
- Mar. 30, 2021
Background
Dewayne Boone brought a self-represented action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law allowing certain claims against government officials for violating constitutional rights. He alleged that defendants were violating his constitutional rights by failing to protect him from contracting COVID-19. The opinion states that he was held at the Vernon C. Bain Center when he began the case and was later held at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island. Boone filed a Second Amended Complaint on March 22, 2021.
The court had previously allowed Boone to proceed without paying the filing fee upfront. In such cases, the court must dismiss claims that are frivolous, malicious, fail to state a claim, seek money from an immune defendant, or fall outside the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction. The court also said it must read a self-represented plaintiff’s pleadings liberally.
Rulings
The court dismissed Boone’s claims against the New York City Department of Correction because, as a New York City agency, it lacks the legal capacity to be sued. The court construed the complaint as asserting claims against the City of New York instead and directed the clerk to replace the Department of Correction with the City in the case caption. The order stated that this amendment was without prejudice to any defense the City might later assert.
Because Boone had been allowed to proceed without paying fees upfront, the court directed the clerk to prepare the forms and paperwork needed for the U.S. Marshals Service to serve Patricia Yang and Margaret Egan. The court also directed notice to the Department of Correction and the New York City Law Department and requested that the City of New York and Commissioner Cynthia Brann waive service. Boone was instructed to notify the court in writing if his address changed.
Effect of the Order
This was an order concerning initial screening, the proper defendant, and service of process. It did not decide the merits of Boone’s allegations about protection from COVID-19.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.