Opinion
Case No. 2:15-cv-13054
10-07-2015
CYNTHIA STEWART-MATZEN, Petitioner, v. ANTHONY STEWART, Respondent.
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE ANTHONY P. PATTI
OPINION AND ORDER DISMISSING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS [1] WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Petitioner, Cynthia Stewart-Matzen, is in state custody at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She has filed a pro se Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus [1] under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging her convictions for burning insured property and arson of a dwelling house, obtained in Ionia County Circuit Court.
On the same date that the pending petition was filed, another habeas petition was filed in this Court and assigned a lower case number. See Stewart-Matzen v. Stewart, No. 2:15-cv-13050. That first-filed petition challenges the same 2013 convictions challenged in the pending matter, and is identical in substance to the instant petition. See id. The Court finds that the petition is duplicative of another case pending in this District and, therefore, dismisses the petition.
"[A] suit is duplicative if the claims, parties, and available relief do not significantly differ between the two actions." Serlin v. Arthur Andersen & Co., 3 F.3d 221, 223 (7th Cir. 1993) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). A district court may dismiss a habeas petition when it is duplicative of a pending habeas petition. See Davis v. U.S. Parole Com'n, No. 88-5905, 1989 WL 25837 (6th Cir. 1989); Marks v. Wolfenbarger, No. 2:06-cv-14325, 2006 WL 2850340, *1 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 3, 2006) (Edmunds, J.) (same); Fuson v. Harry, No. 06-13211-BC, 2006 WL 2421639, *1 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 22, 2005) (Lawson, J.) (same). This petition is duplicative of the earlier-filed petition and shall be dismissed.
Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the Petition [1] is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: October 7, 2015
/s/Gershwin A Drain
HON. GERSHWIN A. DRAIN
United States District Court Judge