Lewis v. The City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-05822
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Lewis v. The City of New York, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice after Lewis failed to submit a signed signature page.
Robert Lewis, whose complaint was dismissed without prejudice, and The City of New York, the defendant. Any appeal is also affected because permission to proceed without paying the filing fee was denied.
What happened
Lewis v. The City of New York concerned Robert Lewis’s complaint against The City of New York. The court had previously ordered Lewis to submit a signed signature page, and later gave him another 30 days after vacating an earlier dismissal.
Lewis did not submit the signature page or otherwise contact the court. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Lewis permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Lewis v. The City of New York · No. 1:23-cv-05822
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 3, 2025
Background
Robert Lewis proceeded without a lawyer. On July 12, 2023, the court directed him to resubmit the signature page of his complaint because the complaint was unsigned. After Lewis did not comply, the court dismissed the action without prejudice on October 30, 2023.
Lewis later told the court that he had not received the July 12 order and consented to electronic service. On January 16, 2024, the court vacated the October 30 dismissal and gave him 30 days to submit a completed signature page.
Ruling
Lewis did not resubmit the signature page and did not otherwise communicate with the court. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a). It also directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Appeal-related ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.