Hines v. NHL
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-07756
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hines v. NHL, Judge Swain transferred a pro se Title VII race-discrimination and retaliation case to the Western District of New York.
Dashon Hines and the NHL were affected by the transfer of the action from the Southern District of New York to the Western District of New York; the transferee court was left to decide Hines’s filing-fee status.
What happened
In Hines v. NHL, Dashon Hines, representing himself, alleged that the National Hockey League discriminated and retaliated against him because of his race under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Hines lived in Erie County and worked at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, also in Erie County. The court said the Southern District of New York was a proper venue, but found that the Western District of New York would be more convenient because the underlying events occurred where Hines lived and worked.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the case transferred to the Western District of New York. The court did not decide whether Hines’s discrimination or retaliation claims were valid; it closed the case in the Southern District, left the filing-fee question to the transferee court, and denied fee-free status for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Hines v. NHL · No. 1:22-cv-07756
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 27, 2022
Background
Dashon Hines brought this action without a lawyer under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He alleged that the National Hockey League discriminated and retaliated against him because of his race. The opinion states that Hines resides in Erie County and worked at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, Erie County, New York.
Venue and Transfer Analysis
The court explained that Title VII permits an employment case to be filed in any judicial district in the state where the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred. Because the events underlying Hines’s claims occurred in New York, the Southern District of New York was a proper venue.
The court nevertheless applied 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), which allows a court to transfer a case to another district where it could have been brought when doing so would serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and the interests of justice. Courts consider factors including witness and party convenience, where the important events occurred, the availability of witnesses and evidence, the parties’ resources, the court’s familiarity with the governing law, the plaintiff’s choice of forum, trial efficiency, and the overall interests of justice.
The court found that transfer was appropriate because the underlying events occurred in Erie County, where Hines worked and resides. It also gave Hines’s choice of the Southern District less weight because he does not reside in a county within that district and the operative events did not occur there. The opinion states that Erie County is within the Western District of New York.
Disposition
The court ordered the Clerk of Court to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. It stated that the transferee court would decide whether Hines could proceed without paying filing fees. The Southern District would not issue a summons, and the order closed the case there.
The court did not reach the merits of Hines’s discrimination or retaliation allegations. It also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.