Rodriguez-Morales v. Breaking Ground
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-00799
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Rodriguez-Morales v. Breaking Ground, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Rodriguez-Morales did not submit required signed pages.
Enki Rodriguez-Morales’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice, and permission to proceed without paying fees was denied for any appeal.
What happened
Rodriguez-Morales v. Breaking Ground concerned the plaintiff’s failure to submit original signatures on the complaint and application to proceed without paying filing fees.
The court had ordered Rodriguez-Morales to resubmit those signed pages within 30 days and warned that failing to do so would lead to dismissal. Rodriguez-Morales did not submit them.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice, directed the Clerk to enter judgment, and denied fee-free status for any appeal after finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Rodriguez-Morales v. Breaking Ground · No. 1:25-cv-00799
- Laura Swain
- June 5, 2025
Background
By an order dated April 2, 2025, the court directed Enki Rodriguez-Morales to resubmit the signature page of the complaint and the signature page of the application to proceed without paying filing fees. The court required original signatures and gave Rodriguez-Morales 30 days to comply. The order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
What the Court Decided
Rodriguez-Morales did not submit the signed signature pages. Citing Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a), the court dismissed the complaint without prejudice. The court also directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment in the action.
Appeal and Fee Status
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 fees for purposes of an appeal.
Classification
This is a procedural order because the court dismissed the complaint for failure to comply with a filing requirement without deciding the underlying claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.