Williams v. Woods
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-02620
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
Williams v. Woods: Judge Swain dismissed the petition without prejudice because Williams failed to submit an original signature page.
Terrell Williams’s petition was dismissed without prejudice because he did not submit the required original signature page. The court also denied a certificate of appealability and permission to appeal without paying filing fees.
What happened
In Williams v. Woods, the court had ordered Terrell Williams to resubmit the petition’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. The order warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal, but Williams did not submit the signed page.
The court dismissed the petition without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a). It also said that no certificate of appealability would issue and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees because the appeal would not be taken in good faith.
Judge Swain entered the order on May 20, 2025. The dismissal was based on the missing signature page, not on a ruling about the petition’s underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Woods · No. 1:25-cv-02620
- Laura Swain
- May 20, 2025
Background
Terrell Williams filed a petition against James Woods, identified in the caption as a superintendent. On April 4, 2025, the court directed Williams to resubmit the petition’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. The court expressly warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Ruling
The court found that Williams had not submitted the signed signature page. Citing Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a), which requires a party’s filing to be signed, the court dismissed the petition without prejudice. The order therefore did not resolve the petition’s underlying claims.
The court also ruled that a certificate of appealability would not issue because Williams had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied. In addition, under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3), the court certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying the filing fees.
Effect of the Order
The petition was dismissed without prejudice. The order separately denied a certificate of appealability and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees. The opinion does not state any further procedural requirements for submitting a new petition.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.