Ellis v. Sealey
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-04398
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Ellis v. Sealey, Judge Swain dismissed Ellis’s amended complaint because it repeated claims previously dismissed for failure to state a claim, judicial immunity, and frivolousness.
William Ellis, Jr.; Rhonda P. Sealey; and Carol Ann Jordan. The case is closed, and the filing restrictions and appeal-fee ruling affect Ellis.
What happened
In Ellis v. Sealey, William Ellis, Jr. filed the action without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying court fees. The court had already dismissed his original complaint on June 15, 2021, for failing to state a claim, because of absolute judicial immunity, and because it was frivolous.
On June 28, 2021, Ellis submitted another complaint form using this case’s caption and docket number. The court treated that submission as an amended complaint because it raised substantially similar claims to those in the original complaint.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the amended complaint for the same reasons stated in the earlier dismissal order. The case is closed; the court will accept only documents directed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and it warned that continued filings could lead to an order requiring Ellis to explain why further filings should not be barred. The court also denied Ellis permission to proceed without paying fees on an appeal.
The detailed version
- Ellis v. Sealey · No. 1:21-cv-04398
- Laura Swain
- July 6, 2021
Background
William Ellis, Jr. brought this action without a lawyer and proceeded without paying court fees. On June 15, 2021, the court dismissed his original complaint for failure to state a claim on which relief could be granted, under the doctrine of absolute judicial immunity, and as frivolous. The court also entered judgment.
Amended Complaint
On June 28, 2021, the court received a new complaint form from Ellis that used this action’s caption and docket number. The submission asserted substantially similar claims to those in the original complaint. The court construed the submission as an amended complaint and dismissed it for the reasons stated in the June 15 dismissal order.
Ruling and Case Status
The court dismissed the amended complaint. It stated that the case was closed and that it would accept only documents directed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The court warned that, if Ellis continued filing documents in the closed action, it could require him to show why he should not be barred from filing further documents in that action. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The clerk was directed to mail Ellis a copy of the order and record service on the docket.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.