Monte v. Bristol Myers Squibb Co.
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-04222
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Monte v. Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Chief Judge Swain transferred the employment case to New Jersey because venue was improper in New York.
Michelle Monte’s Title VII case was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the District of New Jersey; Bristol Myers Squibb Co. remains the defendant.
What happened
Michelle Monte, representing herself, sued Bristol Myers Squibb Co. under Title VII, claiming the company denied her religious accommodation request to be exempted from its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy. She alleged that the relevant events occurred at the company’s locations in New Jersey.
The court ruled that New York was not the proper place for the case because Monte alleged that the employment discrimination occurred in New Jersey, where she worked and where her accommodation request was considered and denied. The court transferred the action to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey rather than dismissing it.
Chief Judge Swain also directed the Clerk to return Monte’s $404 payment because it was the incorrect filing amount, stated that no summons would issue from the New York court, and denied permission to proceed without fees on appeal because an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Monte v. Bristol Myers Squibb Co. · No. 1:23-cv-04222
- Laura Swain
- June 7, 2023
Background
Michelle Monte filed the action without a lawyer under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She sued Bristol Myers Squibb Co. for employment discrimination, alleging that the company denied her request for a religious accommodation from its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy. Monte alleged that the relevant events took place at Bristol Myers’s New Brunswick and Princeton, New Jersey, locations. She paid $404 to file the action, although the opinion states that the filing and administrative fees in that court totaled $402.
Venue Analysis
Title VII permits an employment-discrimination case to be filed in specified districts connected to the alleged unlawful employment practice, including the district where the practice occurred. Monte alleged that her claims arose in New Jersey, where she was employed and where her accommodation request was considered and denied. The court therefore concluded that the Southern District of New York was not a proper venue.
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), when a case is filed in the wrong venue, the court may dismiss it or, when justice supports that result, transfer it to a district where it could have been brought. The court determined that venue was proper in the District of New Jersey and transferred the action there in the interest of justice.
Order
The court directed the Clerk to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. It ordered that no summons issue from the Southern District of New York and directed the Clerk to return Monte’s $404 payment because it was incorrect; Monte could remit payment in New Jersey after the transfer. The order closed the action in the Southern District of New York. The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.