Yung v. NYC Mayor Adams
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-02948
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Yung v. NYC Mayor Adams, Judge Swain transferred Yung’s detention challenge to the Eastern District of New York without deciding its merits.
John Yung’s detention challenge was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Eastern District of New York; the merits of his detention claim remain undecided.
What happened
In Yung v. NYC Mayor Adams, John Yung, who appeared without a lawyer, asked a federal court to review his detention without bail in a pending state criminal case. The opinion says he appeared to be held before trial at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island.
The Southern District of New York explained that a detention challenge generally belongs where the relevant custodian or criminal proceedings are located. Because Yung’s case appeared to be pending in Kings County, which is in the Eastern District of New York, the court transferred the action there without deciding whether his detention was lawful.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the clerk to transfer the case and closed it in the Southern District of New York. The Eastern District will decide whether Yung may proceed without paying the filing fee, and the court denied permission to appeal without prepaying that fee.
The detailed version
- Yung v. NYC Mayor Adams · No. 1:24-cv-02948
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 23, 2024
Background
John Yung filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus, a request for court review of allegedly unlawful custody. The opinion states that he appeared to be a pretrial detainee held at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. He challenged detention without bail connected to criminal proceedings that he seemed to allege were pending in New York Supreme Court, Kings County, under case number IND-71296-23/001.
Yung did not pay the filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepaying it in the Southern District of New York.
Reason for Transfer
The court explained that a court hearing a detention challenge generally must have authority over the detainee’s custodian, and that jurisdiction generally lies in the federal district where the person is confined. The opinion states that Rikers Island is generally understood to be within both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. It further states that Kings County is in the Eastern District of New York.
Because the criminal proceedings appeared to be pending in Kings County, the court transferred the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in the interest of justice under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a).
Ruling and Effect
The court directed the clerk to transfer the action to the Eastern District of New York and stated that the transfer closed the action in the Southern District of New York. It did not decide whether Yung’s detention without bail was lawful. The transferee court will decide whether Yung may proceed without prepaying the filing fee. The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying the fee.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.