Opinion
2:24CV109-PPS/JEM
04-02-2024
CARL LEE LEDFORD, Plaintiff, v. MELODAY WALDO, et al., Defendants.
OPINION AND ORDER
PHILIP P. SIMON, JUDGE
Acting without an attorney, Carl Lee Ledford has filed a civil complaint making allegations of malicious prosecution, false arrest and wrongful detention against Meloday Waldo, a La Porte County resident, the La Porte County Sheriff's Department, the La Porte County Public Defender's Office, and the Fort Wayne Police Department. The case has been opened in the court's Hammond division. But the defendants are located, and the conduct the case is based on occurred, in the court's South Bend and Fort Wayne divisions, more in the former than the latter.
The court's local rules mimic the provisions of federal statutes concerning venue, by which the proper court location for a particular case is identified. See N.D.Ind. L.R. 3-1(a). None of the defendants “reside” in the Hammond division and it does not appear that the events giving rise to the case occurred in this division. Id.; 28 U.S.C. §1391(b)(1) and (2). Instead, venue appears to be proper in the South Bend division because it is the location of three of the four defendants and where a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claim occurred. Id. Under L.R. 3-1(b)(2), because I've determined that this case is filed in a division without proper venue, I will “transfer the case by issuing an order directing the clerk to reopen the case in a proper division.”
ACCORDINGLY:
Pursuant to N.D.Ind. L.R. 3-1(b)(2), because this case has been opened in a division without proper venue, the Clerk is directed to reopen the case in the South Bend division of the district.
SO ORDERED.