Alli v. Walker
- Paul Gardephe
- 1:22-cv-07616
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Alli v. Walker, Magistrate Judge Aaron relieved the Law Department of identifying remaining unidentified defendants for now.
Umar Alli, the New York City Law Department, and the remaining unidentified defendants. The order also concerns service on the previously identified defendants named in Alli’s amended complaint.
What happened
In Alli v. Walker, Umar Alli added defendants to an amended complaint and asked the New York City Law Department to help identify people named as unidentified defendants. The court ordered Alli to provide physical descriptions, but he said their appearances were not fully known and did not provide the requested information.
The court ordered that a separate service order would address the previously identified defendants named in the amended complaint. It otherwise relieved the Law Department of its obligation to identify the remaining unidentified defendants at this time. The court said Alli may seek discovery about their identities and may ask to amend his complaint later as appropriate.
Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron issued the order on December 18, 2023.
The detailed version
- Alli v. Walker · No. 1:22-cv-07616
- Paul Gardephe
- Dec. 18, 2023
Background
The court had previously directed the New York City Law Department to help identify defendants whom Umar Alli had named or sought to name in his amended complaint. After Alli filed the amended complaint, he requested help identifying additional unidentified defendants. The court ordered him to provide physical descriptions of those individuals by August 22, 2023, and later extended the deadline to October 2, 2023, and then to December 15, 2023.
The Law Department asked the court either to require Alli to provide physical descriptions and facts about what the individuals allegedly did or to relieve the Department of its obligation to identify them. The court granted that request in September 2023, subject to a later deadline. Alli ultimately filed a letter stating that the unidentified defendants’ physical appearances were not fully known but that they could be identified through official documents and reports.
Ruling
The court ordered that it would separately enter an order concerning service on the previously identified defendants named in the amended complaint. It otherwise relieved the Law Department of its obligation to identify the remaining unidentified defendants at this time. The court relied on the Department’s representation that it could not identify them without more information from Alli and on Alli’s statement that he could not provide additional information such as physical descriptions.
The court stated that Alli may seek discovery concerning the identities of the remaining defendants and may seek to amend his pleading at a later date as appropriate. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron entered the order on December 18, 2023.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.