Hussey v. Ms. Boyd
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-04344
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Hussey v. Ms. Boyd, Judge Swain dismissed the duplicate lawsuit without prejudice and did not charge its filing fee.
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey’s duplicate lawsuit and filing-fee obligations were affected. The court did not decide the allegations against Ms. Boyd on their merits; the related case under docket number 23-CV-2907 (LTS) remained pending.
What happened
Hussey v. Ms. Boyd involved Yessuh Suhyes Hussey’s lawsuit against Ms. Boyd, a social worker at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center. Hussey, who was representing himself, alleged that Ms. Boyd shared his confidential medical information.
The court found that Hussey had already filed a substantially similar lawsuit against Ms. Boyd, which remained pending under docket number 23-CV-2907 (LTS). Because the two lawsuits raised the same claims, the court said there was no useful purpose in allowing this duplicate case to continue.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed this complaint without prejudice to Hussey’s pending case, directed the Clerk of Court not to charge the $350 filing fee, and denied fee-free appeal status after certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The court also directed the Clerk to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. Ms. Boyd · No. 1:23-cv-04344
- Laura Swain
- May 26, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey brought this action without a lawyer under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal civil-rights law. He alleged that Ms. Boyd, a social worker at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, shared his confidential medical information on October 6, 2022.
Reason for Dismissal
The court stated that Hussey had previously submitted a substantially similar complaint against Ms. Boyd based on the same alleged disclosure. That earlier related proceeding remained pending under docket number 23-CV-2907 (LTS). Because this complaint raised the same claims, the court concluded that no useful purpose would be served by litigating this duplicate lawsuit.
Ruling and Other Orders
The court dismissed Hussey’s complaint as duplicative of docket number 23-CV-2907 (LTS), without prejudice to his pending case. The court directed the Clerk of Court not to charge the $350 filing fee for this action, and directed that no funds be deducted or held from Hussey’s prison trust account for this lawsuit.
The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Hussey the status that would allow him to appeal without paying the required fees. It directed the Clerk to mail the order to Hussey and to enter judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.