Cano v. United States of America/Corporate America
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-09165
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Cano v. United States, Judge Swain granted reconsideration, vacated the dismissal, and reopened the case without deciding Cano’s claims.
Christopher Hiram Cano’s case was reopened, while the United States of America / Corporate America and the other defendants remain parties to claims that the court has not yet addressed.
What happened
In Cano v. United States of America / Corporate America, Christopher Hiram Cano filed the case without a lawyer while in New York City custody. The court had ordered Cano to provide a prisoner authorization form and later to update her address after court mail was returned.
After Cano did not respond, the court dismissed the case without prejudice for failure to prosecute. Cano later filed an amended complaint and asked the court to reconsider, saying defendants had interfered with her efforts to continue the case.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain granted reconsideration, vacated the earlier dismissal and civil judgment, and reopened the case. The court did not decide Cano’s claims, no summons was issued, and the court denied fee-free appeal status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Cano v. United States of America/Corporate America · No. 1:21-cv-09165
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 19, 2024
Background
Christopher Hiram Cano filed the action without a lawyer on November 4, 2021, while in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction. The opinion states that Cano is currently being held at Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center and uses she/her pronouns.
Because Cano did not submit a prisoner authorization form, the court ordered her on April 5, 2022, to provide a completed and signed form within 30 days. The court mailed that order to Cano’s address of record at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island, but the mail was returned on March 30, 2022, marked “Inmate DISC xSH 3/30.”
On August 31, 2022, the court ordered Cano to update her address within 30 days and warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal without prejudice for failure to prosecute. After Cano did not respond, the court dismissed the action without prejudice on October 5, 2022.
Request for reconsideration
On August 18, 2023, Cano filed an amended complaint with attachments totaling 246 pages and moved for reconsideration. Cano asserted that she had not failed to prosecute and that defendants had maliciously prevented her from prosecuting the case and interfered with her written communications with the court.
Ruling
The court granted Cano’s motion for reconsideration. It vacated the October 5, 2022 order of dismissal and the related civil judgment and directed the Clerk of Court to reopen the case. The court stated that Cano’s claims would be addressed later and that no summons would issue at that time.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied Cano fee-free appeal status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not decide the merits of Cano’s claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.