Opinion ID: 739737
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Transfer of Cases

Text: 21 The court's consideration of whether the State Officers complied with Rule 41(a)(1) is affected by two rules which governed the transfer of this action from the Northern to the Central District. First, Local Rule 3-15 of the Northern District of California provides that an order transferring an action to another district shall become effective 10 days after filing of the order. Second, with respect to the transfer of cases under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), this court has adopted the docketing date in the transferee court as the time of effective transfer. Lou v. Belzberg, 834 F.2d 730, 733 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 993, 108 S.Ct. 1302, 99 L.Ed.2d 512 (1988). Stated differently, the transfer of a case from one district to another is not complete until the papers are physically docketed in the office of the receiving court. Id.; accord Starnes v. McGuire, 512 F.2d 918, 924 (D.C.Cir.1974) (en banc); Magnetic Eng'g & Mfg. Co. v. Dings Mfg. Co., 178 F.2d 866, 868 (2d Cir.1950). Therefore, during the time between entry of the transfer order and the receipt of the case file in the transferee court, the transferor court remains the forum in which pleadings may be filed. If the rule were otherwise, a plaintiff would have no forum in which to file a notice of dismissal between the time that the transfer order is entered and the date on which the papers are received by the transferee court. 6 Conversely, during this same time, a defendant could foreclose the plaintiff from dismissing the action under Rule 41(a)(1) by simply serving an answer. See Sheldon v. Amperex Elec. Corp., 52 F.R.D. 1, 5 (E.D.N.Y.), aff'd, 449 F.2d 146 (2d Cir.1971). 22 In the instant case, the Northern District transfer order, having been entered on April 14, was effective on April 24 pursuant to Local Rule 3-15. However, the transfer was not complete until nearly two months later, on June 13, when the Central District received and docketed the case. Prior to June 13, the Northern District remained the proper court in which to file documents. Therefore, the Northern District Clerk erred by refusing to file documents after entry of the April 14 transfer order. When considering the improper refusal of clerks to file documents in the wake of a transfer, this court will ignore clerical errors, and treat documents as filed on the dates that they were tendered to the court that should have filed them. Accord Mahurkar, 750 F.Supp. 330; Aero-Colours v. Propst, 114 F.R.D. 107 (S.D.Tex.), aff'd, 833 F.2d 51 (5th Cir.1987). 23