Komatsu v. The City of New York

Background

Towaki Komatsu filed this action without a lawyer. The court had dismissed the action in an order issued on October 21, 2020, and entered on October 22, 2020, along with a judgment entered on October 22, 2020. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal on December 20, 2021.

Komatsu later filed letters that the district court treated as a motion for relief from the dismissal order and judgment under Rule 59(e) or, alternatively, Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The district court denied that motion on June 3, 2022.

Subsequent filings

On June 16, 2022, Komatsu filed an emergency request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. He filed additional letters or submissions on June 19, June 20, and June 23, 2022. The opinion does not describe the substance of those submissions in detail.

Ruling

The court stated that the action had long been closed and that the Second Circuit had affirmed the dismissal. It therefore denied any relief Komatsu sought in submissions filed after the court's June 3, 2022 denial of postjudgment relief. “Postjudgment relief” means a request to change or undo a judgment after the case has ended.

The court also directed the Clerk of Court to terminate any future motion Komatsu filed in this action seeking relief from the dismissal. It stated that new matters should be presented in a new case assigned through the court's regular process. The order did not add a separate statement that the dismissal was with or without prejudice.