Caldwell v. City of New York
- Lewis Liman
- 1:21-cv-06560
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Caldwell v. City of New York, Judge Liman denied Caldwell’s requests to vacate prior orders and recuse the judge.
Emmett Caldwell, the unidentified defendants, and the City of New York and other defendants named in the case.
What happened
In Caldwell v. City of New York, Emmett Caldwell asked the court to undo an earlier order denying service by publication, undo a show-cause order, and remove Judge Liman from the case.
Magistrate Judge Aaron had already denied the renewed request for service by publication in part, finding that publication was not reasonably likely to notify the unidentified defendants about the lawsuit. He left the requests to vacate Judge Liman’s orders and the request for recusal for Judge Liman to decide.
Judge Liman denied the remaining requests. He denied vacating the order that rejected service by publication, denied vacating the show-cause order as moot because the case had not been dismissed, and denied the request for recusal because it was based on disagreement with the court’s rulings. The case remained pending in discovery.
The detailed version
- Caldwell v. City of New York · No. 1:21-cv-06560
- Lewis Liman
- Jan. 3, 2023
Background
Emmett Caldwell moved to vacate, meaning cancel, an earlier order denying permission to notify unidentified defendants through service by publication. He also sought to vacate an earlier show-cause order stating that the case would be dismissed if he did not attend a conference, and asked Judge Liman to recuse himself, meaning step aside from the case.
Earlier ruling
Magistrate Judge Aaron had construed Caldwell’s motion as including a renewed request for service by publication and denied that request in part. The magistrate judge concluded that publication was not reasonably calculated to notify the unidentified defendants because the events occurred more than 40 years earlier and there was no basis to conclude that the defendants would recognize Caldwell’s name or understand that they were the people he intended to sue. Magistrate Judge Aaron deferred the requests concerning Judge Liman’s prior orders and recusal to Judge Liman.
Ruling
Judge Liman denied the remaining issues raised in Caldwell’s motion. He denied the request to vacate the earlier order denying service by publication for the reasons stated by Magistrate Judge Aaron. He denied the request to vacate the show-cause order as moot because the case had not been dismissed under that order and was still pending in discovery. He also denied the request for recusal, explaining that it appeared to be based only on disagreement with the court’s rulings. The order stated that recusal is not warranted based solely on judicial rulings or routine administration of a case, absent the circumstances described in the cited precedent.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.