Smith v. Tishman
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:21-cv-02990
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Smith v. Tishman, Judge McMahon dismissed Smith’s duplicative employment-discrimination complaint without prejudice to his pending related case.
Stewart M. Smith’s duplicate lawsuit was dismissed; his earlier related case under docket number 1:21-CV-2915 was not dismissed by this order. The order also denied Smith permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal.
What happened
Smith v. Tishman involved a pro se complaint by Stewart M. Smith claiming employment discrimination against AECOM Tishman and other defendants. Smith had already filed a substantially similar case against the same defendants based on the same facts.
Judge McMahon dismissed this complaint as duplicative because the earlier case was still pending under docket number 1:21-CV-2915. The dismissal was without prejudice to Smith’s pending case.
Judge McMahon also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Smith permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal. The order directed the Clerk of Court to mail Smith a copy and record service on the docket.
The detailed version
- Smith v. Tishman · No. 1:21-cv-02990
- Colleen McMahon
- Apr. 9, 2021
Background
Stewart M. Smith, appearing without a lawyer, brought an employment-discrimination action against AECOM Tishman and other defendants. The court stated that Smith had previously submitted a substantially similar complaint against the same defendants arising from the same facts. That earlier case was pending in the same court under docket number 1:21-CV-2915. A footnote stated that, according to the docket, Smith had not yet paid the filing fees or requested permission to proceed without paying them in that earlier case.
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint as duplicative, explaining that litigating a second lawsuit raising the same claims would serve no useful purpose. The dismissal was without prejudice to Smith’s pending case under docket number 1:21-CV-2915. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees for purposes of an appeal.
Other Order
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail Smith a copy of the order and note service on the docket. Judge Colleen McMahon signed the order on April 9, 2021.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.