Still v. The State of New York, 1:21-cv-00635

Pro se plaintiff Ulner Still, incarcerated at Orleans Correctional Facility, sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging inadequate COVID-19 protocols/conditions at that facility.
Still filed in the Eastern District of New York and moved to proceed in forma pauperis and for class certification, noting relatedness to Stewart v. State of New York.
The alleged events occurred at Orleans Correctional Facility in Orleans County, which lies in the Western District of New York.
The Eastern District judge concluded venue under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2) was proper in the Western District because a substantial part of events occurred there.
Rather than dismiss, the court transferred the case to the United States District Court for the Western District of New York under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a).
The court reserved decisions on the IFP and class-certification motions to the transferee court and certified any appeal would not be taken in good faith, denying IFP status for appeal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Proper venue	Still filed in EDNY; related to Stewart	No opposing venue argument presented	Venue lies in W.D.N.Y. because events occurred in Orleans County; EDNY not proper forum
Dismissal vs. transfer for wrong venue	Implicitly sought relief in EDNY	N/A	Court exercised discretion to transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a) rather than dismiss (discretion affirmed by precedent)
Disposition of IFP & class-certification motions	Requested IFP and class certification	N/A	Determination reserved to transferee court (W.D.N.Y.)
IFP for appeal	May seek leave to appeal IFP	N/A	Court certified appeal not in good faith and denied in forma pauperis status for any appeal (28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3))

Minnette v. Time Warner, 997 F.2d 1023 (2d Cir. 1993) (district court has discretion to dismiss or transfer cases filed in wrong venue)
Coppedge v. United States, 369 U.S. 438 (1962) (standard for determining good-faith support to permit in forma pauperis appeals)