Thompson v. Booth
- Philip Halpern
- 7:16-cv-03477
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Thompson v. Booth, Judge Halpern denied Thompson’s counsel requests as moot or for the wrong forum and denied appeal-related fee-free status.
Kevin Thompson’s requests for district-court and appellate pro bono counsel were denied as described in the order, and fee-free status for an appeal from the order was denied. The order also affected Defendant Troy Booth by denying his motion to vacate the final judgment.
What happened
In Thompson v. Booth, the court had already entered a final judgment awarding Kevin Thompson $50,000 in compensatory damages. Thompson’s limited pro bono representation ended after that judgment, and he then asked the court to appoint new pro bono counsel.
The court said all district-court proceedings had ended after it denied the defendant’s motion to vacate the judgment. It therefore denied Thompson’s requests for pro bono counsel as moot. To the extent he sought counsel for his appeal, the court denied that request without prejudice to renewing it in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Judge Halpern also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. The Clerk was directed to terminate the pending counsel motion and mail the order to the parties.
The detailed version
- Thompson v. Booth · No. 7:16-cv-03477
- Philip Halpern
- May 12, 2022
Background
On March 29, 2022, the court entered final judgment awarding Plaintiff Kevin Thompson $50,000 in compensatory damages. On March 30, 2022, Defendant filed a motion under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 55(c) and 60(b) seeking to vacate that judgment. Thompson, represented by limited-scope pro bono counsel, responded to the motion. His counsel stated that the representation ended when the final judgment was issued.
Thompson then appeared without a lawyer and asked the court on several occasions to appoint new pro bono counsel. He filed a formal application for counsel on May 6, 2022. Meanwhile, Defendant filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on April 28, 2022.
Rulings
On May 12, 2022, the court denied Defendant’s motion to vacate the final judgment, which the court said concluded all active proceedings at the district-court level. The court therefore denied Thompson’s requests for pro bono counsel as moot.
The court separately ruled that, to the extent Thompson sought appointment of pro bono counsel for the appeal, that request was denied without prejudice to renewal in the appropriate forum. The court stated that the application had to be made to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied Thompson fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The Clerk was directed to terminate the motion pending at Doc. 239 and mail the order to Thompson and pro se Defendant Troy Booth.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.