Encarnacion v. Irby
- Edgardo Ramos
- 1:22-cv-01733
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Encarnacion v. Foggie, Judge Ramos extended the service deadline, arranged Marshals service, dismissed previously barred defendants, and granted access to docket sheets.
Samuel Encarnacion, Michelle Foggie, and John Sampugnaro; Irby and Knight were dismissed as defendants in the amended complaint.
What happened
Samuel Encarnacion, who is incarcerated and representing himself, sued under a federal civil-rights law over alleged interference with his postconviction filings in state court. The court had already dismissed claims against several defendants, including Sandra Irby and others, because they were immune, while allowing claims against Michelle Foggie and a previously unidentified motion clerk to proceed.
The court identified John Sampugnaro as the motion clerk previously called John Doe. It extended Encarnacion’s deadline to serve the amended complaint on Sampugnaro and Foggie until January 5, 2023. It also ordered the court clerk and the U.S. Marshals Service to prepare and carry out service on Sampugnaro, and granted Encarnacion’s request for docket sheets.
Judge Edgardo Ramos also dismissed Irby and Knight as defendants in the amended complaint for the reasons stated in the earlier order. The order did not decide whether Encarnacion’s underlying claims against Foggie or Sampugnaro were legally valid.
The detailed version
- Encarnacion v. Irby · No. 1:22-cv-01733
- Edgardo Ramos
- Oct. 26, 2022
Background
Samuel Encarnacion, who was incarcerated at Five Points Correctional Facility and proceeded without a lawyer, brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleged that defendants interfered with submissions he made in his state-court criminal proceedings. The court had granted him permission to proceed without paying the filing fee.
In an earlier order, the court dismissed claims against Sandra Irby, Shera Night, John W. McConnell, Jennifer N. Russell, and Martin Marcus based on immunity. The court allowed claims against Michelle Foggie, the clerk of the Bronx Supreme Court Criminal Division, and a motion clerk identified at that time as John Doe to proceed. The court also explained that, because Encarnacion was allowed to proceed without paying the filing fee, he could use the U.S. Marshals Service to serve process.
The court clerk issued a summons and prepared a U.S. Marshals Service process form for Foggie, but service had not been completed. Encarnacion later filed an amended complaint identifying John Sampugnaro as the person previously named as John Doe. The amended complaint again named Irby and Knight as defendants.
Rulings
The court dismissed Irby and Knight as defendants in the amended complaint for the reasons stated in the earlier order.
The court granted Encarnacion an extension until January 5, 2023, to serve the amended complaint on the remaining defendants, Sampugnaro and Foggie. It directed the clerk to prepare and mail Encarnacion a process form for Sampugnaro, issue a summons, and provide the Marshals Service with the paperwork needed to serve him.
The court also granted Encarnacion’s request for docket sheets from this case and from the earlier related proceeding identified as No. 21-Civ-07584. It directed the clerk to mail those docket sheets and a copy of the order to Encarnacion. The order addressed service and case administration; it did not resolve the merits of the underlying § 1983 claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.