Chavez v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-05123
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Chavez v. Doe, Judge Swain transferred the case to California and denied fee-free appeal status.
Juan Chavez and the defendants named in the action; the case will proceed, if at all, in the Central District of California rather than the Southern District of New York.
What happened
In Chavez v. Doe, Juan Chavez, who is incarcerated and representing himself, sued Doe, Marian Brown, Bobby Lumpkin, and the Los Angeles Municipal Court over conduct in Los Angeles, California.
The Southern District of New York transferred the case to the Central District of California, Western Division. The court relied on reasons given in its order transferring Chavez’s earlier related case.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the clerk to transfer the action, left any decision about proceeding without paying fees to the receiving court, and closed the case in New York. She also denied fee-free status for any appeal and stated that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Chavez v. Doe · No. 1:23-cv-05123
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 1, 2023
Background
Juan Chavez filed this action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he was incarcerated at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, California. He sued Doe, Marian Brown, Bobby Lumpkin, and the Los Angeles Municipal Court. His allegations concerned conduct that occurred in Los Angeles, California.
The court stated that the complaint was nearly identical to one Chavez had filed in the Southern District of New York on June 14, 2023. In that earlier related proceeding, the court transferred the action under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) to the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Ruling
The court transferred this action to the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division, for the reasons given in its earlier transfer order. Section 1404(a) allows a federal court to transfer a civil action to another federal district. The opinion does not restate the earlier order’s reasoning.
The clerk was directed to transfer the action. The court stated that the receiving court would decide whether Chavez could proceed without paying filing fees. No summons was to issue from the Southern District of New York, and the order closed the case in that court.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not state that the claims were decided on their merits.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.