Johnson v. Attorney General of the United States

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO WESTERN DIVISION

ZACHARY JOHNSON, et al., Case No. 1:12-cv-964 Plaintiffs, Weber, J.

vs. Litkovitz, M.J.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, et al., ORDER Defendants

Plaintiffs, inmates at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, Mississippi, bring this pro se civil rights action against United States Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr.; Attorney General ofthe State ofMississippi Jim Hood; federal judges Keith Starrett, James L. Dennis, E. Grady Jolly Jr., Carolyn Dineen King, Jerry E. Smith, Patrick E. Higginbotham, and Royce C. Lamberth; and United States Department of Justice Director of the Torts Branch, Phyllis J. Pyles. Plaintiff Johnson has filed an application to proceed in forma pauperis pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915.

Venue lies in the judicial district where either all defendants reside or where the claim arose. Al-Muhaymin v. Jones, 895 F.2d 1147, 1148 (6th Cir. 1990); 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). The individual defendants reside in Washington, D.C., Jackson, Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana, Houston, Texas, and Austin, Texas. None of the defendants reside in the Southern District of Ohio. The claims asserted in the complaint relate to events that are alleged to have occurred in Washington, D.C., and not the Southern District of Ohio. Therefore, this Court is not the proper venue for plaintiffs' claims.

"The district court of a district in which is filed a case laying venue in the wrong division or district shall dismiss, or if it be in the interest ofjustice, transfer such case to any district or division

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in which it could have been brought." 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a). Since this district is the improper venue for plaintiffs' claims against the defendants, the Court shall transfer this action to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, for further proceedings.

Accordingly, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), the Clerk of Courts is hereby DIRECTED TO TRANSFER this case to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, for ruling on plaintiffs in forma pauperis application and all further proceedings.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Date: ~~~~;<_ 6.0~~

United States Magistrate Judge