Owens v. Orange County Jail
- Vincent Briccetti
- 7:22-cv-06487
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Owens v. Orange County, Judge Briccetti directed another service attempt and extended the deadline for serving Kedar Abdul-Malik.
The order primarily affects DeSean J. Owens and defendant Kedar Abdul-Malik: the Marshals Service must make another attempt to serve Kedar, and Owens’s service deadline is extended to May 2, 2024. The appeal-fee ruling affects Owens’s ability to appeal without paying filing fees.
What happened
In Owens v. Orange County, DeSean J. Owens, who is representing himself and cannot afford filing fees, brought constitutional-rights claims under a federal civil-rights law against Imam Malik Kedar and Orange County. The U.S. Marshals Service had repeatedly been unable to serve Kedar.
The court ordered the Marshals Service to try serving Kedar Abdul-Malik at a new New Jersey address supplied by Orange County. The court also extended Owens’s deadline to serve Kedar to May 2, 2024. The order did not decide whether Owens’s claims were valid.
Judge Vincent L. Briccetti also ruled that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied Owens permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Owens v. Orange County Jail · No. 7:22-cv-06487
- Vincent Briccetti
- Feb. 2, 2024
Background
DeSean J. Owens, proceeding without a lawyer and without paying filing fees, asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law that allows certain claims for constitutional-rights violations. The caption names Imam Malik Kedar and Orange County as defendants.
The court had previously directed the U.S. Marshals Service to serve Kedar and had extended the service deadline several times. The Marshals Service filed several reports stating that service had not been completed. Orange County said it would not accept service for Kedar because he was an independent contractor, but later obtained a current address after asking the correctional facility to contact him. The Marshals Service was told that Kedar’s name was Kedar Abdul-Malik rather than Malik Kedar.
Order
The court directed the Marshals Service to attempt service on Kedar Abdul-Malik at 1107 North Avenue, Plainfield, New Jersey 07062. It extended Owens’s deadline under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m) to May 2, 2024.
The order addressed service of process—the formal delivery of the lawsuit and related papers to a defendant. It did not reach the merits of Owens’s constitutional-rights claims.
Appeal provision
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees for purposes of an appeal.
Judge Vincent L. Briccetti signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.