Broadnax v. Hallet

Background

Cleveland Broadnax filed a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law that allows claims for violations of constitutional rights, against 14 parties. He was proceeding without a lawyer and without paying the filing fee. The court had issued an earlier order directing service of the complaint and modifying the identities of certain defendants.

Service was waived for six individual correctional officers. Nine defendants—including individual officers, a former warden, the City of New York, and Correctional Health Services—answered the complaint on March 17, 2022.

Five other officers could not waive service because the New York City Department of Correction could not identify them from the complaint. Under a procedure requiring assistance in identifying unknown defendants, the court ordered the City of New York to help identify the officers. The City identified them as Nicholas Grant, Shade Vincent, Kerline Lubin, Raymond Sanchez, and Danielle Sands. Broadnax then amended his complaint to name those five officers.

Ruling

Judge Vernon S. Broderick issued this amended order of service. The court requested that Grant, Vincent, Lubin, Sanchez, and Sands waive service of the summons. The Clerk of Court was directed to notify the New York City Department of Correction and the New York City Law Department electronically and to mail Broadnax a copy of the order.

The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied Broadnax permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for purposes of an appeal. The opinion did not decide the merits of Broadnax’s civil-rights claims.