Tenore v. Porretto
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-00974
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Tenore v. Porretto, Judge Swain ordered Ronald Joseph Tenore to submit an original signature within 30 days or face dismissal.
Ronald Joseph Tenore, the unrepresented plaintiff; the order also determines the next procedural step for his action against Dominick Porretto and the other defendants.
What happened
In Tenore v. Porretto, Ronald Joseph Tenore filed the amended complaint without a signature while representing himself. The court explained that federal and local rules require an unrepresented party to personally sign court papers.
The court directed Tenore to resubmit the amended complaint’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. No summons will issue at this time. If he complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he does not, the action will be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Tenore permission to proceed without prepaying appeal fees for purposes of an appeal.
The detailed version
- Tenore v. Porretto · No. 1:25-cv-00974
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 6, 2025
Background
Ronald Joseph Tenore brought this action without a lawyer. He submitted an amended complaint that did not include a signature.
Signature requirement
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) and Local Civil Rule 11.1(a) require a court filing by an unrepresented party to be personally signed by that party. The court explained that this requires a handwritten name or a handplaced mark.
Order
The court directed Tenore to resubmit the amended complaint’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days of the order. The court stated that no summons would issue at that time. If Tenore complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed.
The court also 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 prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal.
Disposition
The court directed submission of an original signature, withheld issuance of a summons at that time, and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. It did not dismiss the action in this order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.