Bettis v. Grijalva
- Gabriel Gorenstein
- 1:21-cv-07505
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bettis v. Grijalva, Judge Gorenstein ordered officials to provide addresses so the incarcerated plaintiff could serve the defendants.
The order affected Zubearu Bettis, the six named defendants, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Bureau of Prisons, the Clerk of Court, and the U.S. Marshal by establishing a process and deadlines for completing service.
What happened
In Bettis v. Grijalva, Zubearu Bettis, an incarcerated person representing himself, sued six defendants over alleged constitutional-rights violations at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The case was brought under a civil-rights law and a federal-court constitutional claim.
The court could not complete service because the U.S. Marshal could not locate the defendants after the correctional center closed. The court ordered the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to obtain and provide service addresses by February 8, 2022, and extended Bettis’s service deadline to March 29, 2022.
Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein issued the order to help Bettis serve the defendants. The order addressed service logistics and did not decide whether the alleged constitutional violations occurred.
The detailed version
- Bettis v. Grijalva · No. 1:21-cv-07505
- Gabriel Gorenstein
- Jan. 11, 2022
Background
Zubearu Bettis filed the complaint representing himself while incarcerated. He named Officer Grijalva, Officer Darden, Warden Lincoln-Vitale, Captain Kizzler, Captain A. Jordan, and Physician Assistant Kang as defendants. The complaint asserts claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and a federal constitutional cause of action recognized in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, alleging that defendants at the Metropolitan Correctional Center violated his constitutional rights.
Service problem
The court had directed the Clerk of Court to give the U.S. Marshal forms needed to serve the six defendants. Each form was returned because the Marshal could not locate the named defendant; the service returns stated that the Metropolitan Correctional Center was “no longer in service.”
Court’s order
Under Valentin v. Dinkins, the court stated that it had an obligation to help Bettis obtain information needed to complete service. The court found that the complaint provided enough information for the Bureau of Prisons to provide service addresses.
Using its authority under 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a), the court ordered the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, identified as the Bureau of Prisons’ attorney, to provide Bettis and the court with addresses where the U.S. Marshal could promptly serve the defendants. The U.S. Attorney or a designee had to confirm receipt of the order by January 25, 2022, and provide the required information by letter served and filed by February 8, 2022.
The court stated that it would then direct the Clerk to provide the information to the U.S. Marshal on Form 285 so service could be completed. It extended the deadline for Bettis to complete service under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m) to March 29, 2022. The Clerk was also directed to mail the order to Bettis and to the Chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Effect of the order
This order concerns obtaining addresses and completing service. It does not resolve the merits of Bettis’s constitutional claims or state whether any defendant violated his rights.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.