Granados v. Gavin
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-06932
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Granados v. Galvin: Judge Swain dismissed the action without prejudice because Granados did not sign her amended application to proceed without paying filing fees.
Delia Granados and the civil action she filed; the order also denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal.
What happened
In Delia Granados v. Elizabeth Galvin, et al., the court gave Granados multiple opportunities to either pay the $405 filing fee or submit a completed and signed application to proceed without paying the fee. Granados submitted an amended application, but it did not include her signature.
The court had warned that failing to provide the required signed application would result in dismissal. Because the application remained unsigned, the court dismissed the action without prejudice under the filing-fee statutes and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a).
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. She directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment dismissing the action.
The detailed version
- Granados v. Gavin · No. 1:24-cv-06932
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 6, 2025
Background
The court previously gave Delia Granados 30 days to either pay the $405 fee required to file a civil action or submit a fully completed and signed amended application to proceed without paying the filing fee. Granados responded with only the first page of the amended application, and it was unsigned.
On November 7, 2024, the court again directed Granados to submit the required completed and signed application within 30 days or pay the filing fee. The court warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal without prejudice, meaning the dismissal would not itself bar refiling.
Court’s Reasoning
Granados filed a completed amended application on November 21, 2024, but it still lacked her signature. The court held that the signature was required by its November 7 order and by Rule 11(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915 and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment for that reason. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.