Bush v. New York City
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-05386
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Bush v. New York City, Judge Swain ordered Anthony Bush to update his address within 30 days or face dismissal, and denied appeal fee-waiver status.
Anthony Bush was required to provide the court with his current mailing address within 30 days. If he did not comply, the court stated that it would dismiss his complaint without prejudice. The defendants and the court were affected because service could not proceed without a current address.
What happened
In Bush v. New York City, Anthony Bush had been incarcerated at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island when he filed the case. After the court’s order allowing him to amend his complaint was returned because he was no longer at that facility, Bush had not provided a new address or contacted the court.
The court ordered Bush to provide his current mailing address in writing within 30 days. He could also choose to receive court documents electronically. The court did not dismiss the complaint in this order; it warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal without prejudice, meaning the case could be filed again.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Bush v. New York City · No. 1:23-cv-05386
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 31, 2023
Background
Anthony Bush filed this action while he was incarcerated at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island and in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction. On July 27, 2023, the court gave him 60 days to file an amended complaint. That order was returned on August 21, 2023, with a notation indicating that Bush was no longer held at the facility. The opinion states that, as of August 31, Bush had not provided the court with an updated address or otherwise contacted the court. A footnote states that the Department of Correction’s inmate-lookup service indicated that Bush had been released to parole on August 16, 2023.
Order
The court explained that Bush was responsible for providing an address where court documents could be served and that the action could not proceed if the court and defendants could not serve him. The court directed Bush to notify it in writing of his current mailing address within 30 days of the order. Bush could also complete and return an attached form consenting to receive documents electronically by email. Any response was to be sent to the court’s Pro Se Intake Unit and labeled with docket number 23-CV-5386 (LTS).
Disposition
The court did not dismiss the complaint in this order. Instead, it ordered Bush to provide his address and stated that, if he did not comply within the allowed time, the court would dismiss the complaint without prejudice. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not address the merits of Bush’s underlying claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.