Noble v. Carter
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-11014
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Noble v. Carter, Judge Swain transferred Noble’s overlapping library-access lawsuit to the Eastern District of New York to avoid duplicate litigation.
Jerome Noble’s lawsuit was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Eastern District of New York; the defendants named in the action are Carter, Santiago, Batchelor, Chester, Morales, and Banks.
What happened
In Noble v. Carter, Jerome Noble, representing himself, alleged that defendants denied him access to the law library at the Anna M. Kross Center from March 2020 through April 2023. He had already brought an earlier, substantially overlapping lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York against the same defendants.
The court found that venue was proper in both the Southern and Eastern Districts because the events occurred at the Anna M. Kross Center. It nevertheless determined that the earlier-filed case should take priority and that transferring this case would avoid duplicate litigation and conserve judicial resources.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the case transferred to the Eastern District of New York under the federal venue-transfer statute. The Southern District case was closed, no summons would issue from that court, and the court denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Noble v. Carter · No. 1:23-cv-11014
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 22, 2024
Background
Jerome Noble, who is incarcerated at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island and is representing himself, brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleged that defendants Carter, Santiago, Batchelor, Chester, Morales, and Banks repeatedly denied him permission to use the law library at the Anna M. Kross Center from March 2020 through April 2023.
Noble already had a pending action in the Eastern District of New York concerning denials of access to that law library. The earlier case involved the same defendants and allegations concerning some dates that fell within the period alleged in this case. The court stated that the earlier case was filed first, on or about February 21, 2023, while this action was filed on or about December 12, 2023.
Venue and transfer
The court explained that federal law generally permits a civil action to be brought where a defendant resides, where a substantial part of the events occurred, or, in limited circumstances, where a defendant is subject to the court’s authority. Because the alleged events occurred at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island, the court concluded that venue was proper in both the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York.
The court applied the first-filed rule, which generally gives priority to the first lawsuit when two substantially overlapping lawsuits are pending. The court explained that this rule helps avoid duplicative litigation and conserves judicial resources. Because Noble’s earlier case was pending in the Eastern District and substantially overlapped with this action, the court concluded that transfer was appropriate under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a).
Ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to transfer this action under 28 U.S.C. § 1404 to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The order stated that no summons would issue from the Southern District and that the case was closed there. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees. The opinion does not decide the merits of Noble’s law-library-access allegations.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.