Azcona v. NJDOC Staff Male Female
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-08369
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Azcona v. NJDOC Staff Male Female, Chief Judge Swain transferred the case to New Jersey because New York was the wrong venue.
Daniel Azcona and the defendants named in the action; the case was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the District of New Jersey.
What happened
Daniel Azcona, proceeding without a lawyer, sued various New Jersey defendants over claims he said arose in New Jersey. The case was filed in the Southern District of New York.
The court determined that venue was not proper in New York because the claims arose in New Jersey and involved New Jersey defendants. It found that the District of New Jersey was the proper venue.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the case transferred to the District of New Jersey in the interest of justice. The New York case was closed, no summons was issued there, and the court denied fee-free appeal status after certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Azcona v. NJDOC Staff Male Female · No. 1:23-cv-08369
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 22, 2023
Background
Daniel Azcona, who the opinion says resides in Camden, New Jersey, brought this action without a lawyer against various New Jersey defendants. The listed defendants included “NJDOC Staff Male Female,” “Middlesex County Resource Center,” and “New Brunswick Police.” Azcona also listed “NY All Boro Subway Platforms, Subway Trains, Path Train” as a defendant.
Venue analysis
The court applied 28 U.S.C. § 1391, which sets the proper federal court location for a civil case. The statute generally allows a case to be filed where the defendants reside, where a substantial part of the events occurred, or, if neither applies, where a defendant is subject to the court’s authority.
The court concluded from the complaint that Azcona’s claims arose in New Jersey and were brought against New Jersey defendants. It therefore found that venue was not proper in the Southern District of New York. The court determined that venue was proper in the District of New Jersey under § 1391(b)(2), because that is where the claims arose.
Ruling
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), when a case is filed in the wrong venue, the court may dismiss it or, in the interest of justice, transfer it to a district where it could have been filed. Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the Clerk to transfer this action to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
The order states that whether Azcona may continue without prepaying filing fees is for the transferee court to decide. A summons was not to issue from the Southern District of New York, and the order closed the case there. The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free appeal status.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.