Leonard of the Family Mills v. Stack
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-06457
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Leonard of the Family Mills v. Eileen Stack, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Leonard did not submit the required original signature.
The dismissal affected Leonard of the Family Mills’s complaint. The court’s separate appeal ruling denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees.
What happened
Leonard of the Family Mills sued Eileen Stack and others in the Southern District of New York.
The court had ordered Leonard to resubmit the complaint’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. The order warned that failing to do so would lead to dismissal, but Leonard did not submit the signed page.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment. She also denied permission to appeal without paying the filing fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Leonard of the Family Mills v. Stack · No. 1:24-cv-06457
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 10, 2025
Background
The court had previously ordered Plaintiff Leonard of the Family Mills to resubmit the complaint’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. The order warned that failure to do so would result in dismissal. Plaintiff did not submit the signed signature page.
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a), which requires a pleading to be signed. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal does not itself bar refiling. The court also directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to appeal without paying the required filing fees. The opinion does not address the merits of the complaint.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.