Harris v. Denully
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-04601
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
Harris v. Denully: Judge Swain dismissed the complaint after Harris failed to file the required amended complaint.
Plaintiff Laquan Devota Harris, whose complaint was dismissed after he did not file the required amended complaint; any state-law claims he may have asserted were not heard.
What happened
In Harris v. Denully, the court had ordered Harris to file an amended complaint within 60 days and warned that failing to do so would lead to dismissal.
Harris did not file an amended complaint. The court dismissed the complaint under the cited prisoner-and-indigent litigant screening provisions and declined to decide any state-law claims.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied Harris permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Harris v. Denully · No. 1:23-cv-04601
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 4, 2023
Background
On July 12, 2023, the court directed Plaintiff to file an amended complaint within 60 days. The order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal. Plaintiff did not file an amended complaint.
The complaint had been filed without paying the filing fee under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1). The opinion states that the complaint was dismissed under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) and (iii). The court also declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction—the authority to hear related state-law claims—over any state-law claims Plaintiff may have been asserting.
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint. It certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Plaintiff permission to appeal without paying the filing fee. The Clerk of Court was directed to enter judgment.
This was a procedural dismissal based on Plaintiff's failure to file the required amended complaint; the opinion does not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.