Brown v. Sten
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00533
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Brown v. Sten, Judge Swain transferred Carol Brown’s case to Pennsylvania because venue was improper in New York.
Carol Brown’s case was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Middle District of Pennsylvania; the order also denied her fee-free status for purposes of an appeal.
What happened
In Brown v. Sten, Carol Brown, representing herself, sued Dr. Jon D. Sten and Geisinger Medical Center, alleging that they violated her rights and failed to provide medical records concerning her daughter’s death in Pennsylvania.
The court ruled that the case could not proceed in the Southern District of New York because the defendants were located in Pennsylvania and the events underlying Brown’s claims occurred there. The court transferred the case to the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Judge Swain directed the clerk to transfer the action and said the case was closed in the Southern District of New York. The court also denied Brown’s fee-free status for purposes of any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Brown v. Sten · No. 1:22-cv-00533
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 22, 2022
Background
Carol Brown filed a complaint without a lawyer against Dr. Jon D. Sten and Geisinger Medical Center. She alleged that the defendants violated her rights and failed to provide medical records relating to her daughter’s death in Pennsylvania. The court had previously allowed Brown to proceed without paying the filing fee.
Venue Analysis
The court applied 28 U.S.C. § 1391, the federal venue statute. It explained that a civil action may generally be brought where a defendant resides or where a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claims occurred. The opinion states that Sten was located in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and Geisinger was located in Danville, Pennsylvania. Brown had previously resided in Shamokin but appeared to live in New York at the time of the order.
Because the defendants did not reside in the Southern District of New York and a substantial part of the events occurred outside that district, the court found that venue was improper there. The court determined that Brown’s claims arose in Danville and Shamokin, which are in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Disposition
The court transferred the action to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), which permits transfer when venue is improper. Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the clerk to transfer the case, stated that a summons would not issue from the Southern District of New York, and ordered that the case be closed in that court. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Brown’s fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not decide the merits of Brown’s claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.