Herbin v. The City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-05890
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Herbin v. The City of New York, Judge Swain denied Herbin’s extension request because his appeal was timely under the prison-mailbox rule.
Reginald Herbin’s request for additional time to appeal was denied as unnecessary, and fee-free status was denied for any appeal from this order.
What happened
In Herbin v. The City of New York, Reginald Herbin, who was detained and represented himself, asked for more time to appeal after the court dismissed his complaint and entered judgment.
The court received his appeal notice on January 13, 2023. Herbin said he had given the notice to prison officials for mailing on December 31, 2022. Under the prison-mailbox rule, the notice was treated as filed when he gave it to prison officials, making it timely.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied the request for an extension as unnecessary. The court also denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order after finding that such an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Herbin v. The City of New York · No. 1:22-cv-05890
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 26, 2023
Background
Reginald Herbin filed the action without a lawyer while detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island. The court had dismissed his complaint on December 7, 2022, and entered judgment on December 9, 2022. Herbin later submitted a notice of appeal and a motion asking for more time to appeal. The opinion states that the court received those materials on January 13, 2023; one sentence refers to that date as January 13, 2022, which appears inconsistent with the surrounding dates.
Appeal deadline
The court explained that a litigant generally has 30 days after entry of the challenged order or judgment to file a notice of appeal. It also applied the prison-mailbox rule, under which a prisoner’s filing is treated as filed when the prisoner gives it to prison officials for mailing. Herbin stated that he gave his notice of appeal to prison officials on December 31, 2022. The court therefore determined that his appeal was filed within the 30-day deadline. The opinion also notes that, on January 20, 2023, the court vacated the earlier order of dismissal and judgment.
Ruling
The court denied Herbin’s motion for an extension of time to appeal as unnecessary. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of such an appeal. The order did not otherwise rule on the merits of the underlying complaint.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.