Barnes v. City of Mount Vernon

Background

The plaintiffs are Dorothy Barnes and Linda McNair. The defendants are the City of Mount Vernon, the City of Mount Vernon Police Department, several police officers, and several detectives. The opinion states that the defendants moved to dismiss the complaint on May 18, 2021.

Order

The court ordered the plaintiffs to notify the court by May 28, 2021, whether they intended to file an amended complaint in response to the motion to dismiss or would rely on the existing complaint. If the plaintiffs chose not to amend, the motion to dismiss would proceed under the regular schedule. The court also stated that it was unlikely to give the plaintiffs another opportunity to amend based on deficiencies revealed by the fully briefed motion.

If the plaintiffs chose to amend, they had to file the amended complaint within 14 days after notifying the court. Within 21 days after the amendment, the defendants could answer, move to dismiss the amended complaint, or notify the court that they would rely on the original motion to dismiss.

Additional Deadlines and Effect

Defense counsel had to serve the order on plaintiffs’ counsel by May 21, 2021. Plaintiffs’ counsel had to file a notice of appearance on the electronic docket by May 26, 2021. Judge Vincent L. Briccetti did not grant or deny the motion to dismiss and did not decide the merits of the claims.