Auguste v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Background

The plaintiffs brought the action without lawyers against U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. The opinion states that the plaintiffs reside in Canada. They invoked federal-question and diversity jurisdiction and alleged that their claims arose in 2023 in Saint Lawrence County, New York.

The plaintiffs alleged that defendants violated their rights in Massena and Ogdensburg, New York. Cherryl Auguste alleged that she was arrested without cause. Only Cherryl Auguste signed the complaint. The court restricted public access to the complaint because it was unclear whether the other plaintiffs were her minor children.

Venue analysis

Venue is the proper federal district for a lawsuit. Under the general venue statute, a civil action may generally be filed where a defendant resides, where a substantial part of the events occurred, or, if neither applies, where a defendant is subject to the court’s personal jurisdiction.

The court held that venue was not proper in the Southern District of New York. The defendants did not all reside in the same state, so the first general venue option did not apply. The plaintiffs alleged that the relevant events occurred in Saint Lawrence County, which is outside the Southern District, so the second option did not apply there either.

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 brought. Judge Laura Taylor Swain concluded that venue was proper in the Northern District of New York because the claims arose in Saint Lawrence County. The court therefore transferred the action to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.

The Clerk was directed to transfer the action. The court stated that the transferee court would decide whether the plaintiffs could proceed without prepaying filing fees. No summons would issue from the Southern District of New York, and that court’s case was closed. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied payment-free filing status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims.