Owens v. Orange County Jail
- Vincent Briccetti
- 7:22-cv-06487
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Owens v. Orange County Jail, Judge Briccetti extended service deadlines and required Orange County to address serving Kedar.
DeSean J. Owens, Imam Malik Kedar, and Orange County; the order directly addressed the deadline and procedures for serving Kedar and Orange County’s required response.
What happened
In Owens v. Orange County Jail, DeSean J. Owens, who was representing himself, brought constitutional-rights claims against Imam Malik Kedar and Orange County under a federal civil-rights law. The court had directed federal marshals to serve Kedar, but repeated attempts had not succeeded.
The court had already extended Owens’s deadline several times. Because Kedar still had not been served and Owens had not requested another extension, the court extended the deadline again, this time to October 20, 2023. It also required Orange County to tell the court whether it would accept service for Kedar and, if not, to provide reasons and a service address.
Judge Briccetti also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Owens permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying constitutional claims.
The detailed version
- Owens v. Orange County Jail · No. 7:22-cv-06487
- Vincent Briccetti
- Sept. 20, 2023
Background
DeSean J. Owens filed constitutional-rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Imam Malik Kedar and Orange County. The opinion states that Owens was proceeding without a lawyer and had been granted permission to proceed without paying the filing fee. The court had directed the U.S. Marshals Service to serve Kedar and Orange County.
The Marshals Service filed a return of service stating that service on Kedar had not been completed. Orange County then supplied a new address for Kedar, and the court ordered the Marshals Service to try service at that address. The court extended Owens’s deadline to serve Kedar to April 25, 2023. After the docket showed that Kedar still had not been served and Owens had not requested more time, the court extended the deadline to June 30, 2023, and later to September 5, 2023. The Marshals Service reported two unsuccessful service attempts on August 29 and 30, 2023.
Court’s Order
The court extended Owens’s deadline under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m) to serve Kedar to October 20, 2023. It also ordered Orange County, by October 4, 2023, to inform the court whether it would accept service on Kedar’s behalf. If Orange County would not accept service, it had to explain why and provide an address where Kedar could be served.
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order addressed service of process and an appeal-fee issue; it did not resolve the merits of Owens’s constitutional-rights claims. Judge Vincent L. Briccetti signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.