Graham v. Metropolitan Community Hospital
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-04053
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Graham v. Moran was dismissed without prejudice as duplicative, and Judge Swain ordered that no filing fee be charged.
Roland Graham, the defendants in this duplicate action, and Graham’s prison trust account; the order also directed the official having custody of Graham not to deduct or encumber funds for this lawsuit.
What happened
In Roland Graham v. Alina Moran, et al., Graham filed a lawsuit while incarcerated and without a lawyer. The court found that he had already filed a substantially similar complaint against the same defendants in a pending related action.
The court dismissed this complaint without prejudice because filing and litigating a duplicate lawsuit would serve no useful purpose. The dismissal did not bar Graham’s pending related action, and the court ordered that no funds be taken from his prison trust account for this lawsuit.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also terminated all other pending matters, directed the Clerk to mail Graham the order, and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal after certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Graham v. Metropolitan Community Hospital · No. 1:21-cv-04053
- Laura Swain
- June 17, 2021
Background
Roland Graham, who was incarcerated and proceeding without a lawyer, filed this action against Alina Moran and other defendants. The court stated that Graham had already submitted a substantially similar complaint against the same defendants in a pending related action under case number 21-CV-3973 (LTS).
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice as duplicative. It explained that no useful purpose would be served by filing and litigating a second lawsuit raising the same claims against the same defendants. The dismissal was without prejudice to Graham’s pending related action, meaning the order did not dismiss that other action.
The court also ordered that Graham not be charged the $350 filing fee for this action and that the official having custody of him not deduct or encumber funds from his prison trust account for this lawsuit. All other pending matters in this case were terminated. The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The Clerk was directed to mail Graham a copy of the order and note service on the docket.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.