Ojo v. WE Pebble Point, LLC
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-09010
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Ojo v. WE Pebble Point, Judge Swain transferred the case to Indiana because New York was the wrong venue.
Jibola Ojo’s case was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Southern District of Indiana. The Southern District of Indiana will decide whether he may proceed without prepaying filing fees; the New York court did not decide the merits of his claims.
What happened
In Ojo v. WE Pebble Point, LLC, the court transferred the case from the Southern District of New York to the Southern District of Indiana. The court did not decide whether the plaintiff’s claims were legally valid.
Jibola Ojo, who is representing himself, sued his former landlord and the Marion County Small Claims Court under a federal civil-rights law. He alleged that they denied him due process and discriminated against him during an eviction-related proceeding in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled that venue was improper in New York because the defendants and the events were connected to Indianapolis. She ordered the case transferred to the Southern District of Indiana, left any decision about proceeding without paying filing fees to that court, and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Ojo v. WE Pebble Point, LLC · No. 1:23-cv-09010
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 24, 2023
Background
Jibola Ojo, appearing without a lawyer, brought an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against WE Pebble Point, LLC, doing business as Pebble Point Apartments, and the Marion County Small Claims Court. He alleged that the defendants deprived him of due process and discriminated against him based on his skin color and country of birth in connection with his eviction from an apartment in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Ojo filed the case in the Southern District of New York. The opinion states that he presently resides in Brooklyn, New York, but that he alleged the defendants reside in or can be found in Indianapolis, where the events underlying his claims occurred.
Venue Analysis
Federal venue rules generally allow a civil action to be brought where a defendant resides, where a substantial part of the relevant events occurred, or, in limited circumstances, where a defendant is subject to the court’s authority. The court concluded that venue was not proper in New York because the defendants and the events giving rise to the claims were connected to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), when a case is filed in the wrong venue, a court may dismiss it or, when justice requires, transfer it to a district where it could have been brought. The court determined that the claims arose in Marion County, Indiana, which is in the Southern District of Indiana.
Ruling and Disposition
The court ordered the Clerk to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The court stated that the transferee court would decide whether Ojo could proceed without paying filing fees. No summons would issue from the Southern District of New York, and the order closed the case in that court.
The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied Ojo permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order transferred the case based on venue and did not decide the merits of Ojo’s civil-rights or discrimination allegations.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.