Moore v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04536
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Moore v. Doe, Judge Swain ordered Moore to submit an original signature within 30 days or face dismissal.
John A. Moore, who is proceeding without a lawyer; the case will not proceed to summons issuance unless he submits the required original signature.
What happened
Moore v. Doe involves John A. Moore, who brought the action without a lawyer and submitted an application to avoid paying the filing fees.
The court received Moore’s application and prisoner authorization, but the application was not signed. The court explained that court filings by an unrepresented party must include that person’s handwritten or personally placed signature.
Judge Swain ordered Moore to submit the application’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. No summons will issue for now, and the court said the action will be dismissed if Moore does not comply; it also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Moore v. Doe · No. 1:25-cv-04536
- Laura Swain
- June 27, 2025
Background
John A. Moore brought this action without a lawyer. In an earlier order, the court directed him either to pay the $405 filing fee or to submit an application to proceed without paying the fee and a prisoner authorization. The court received those documents on June 23, 2025, but Moore’s fee-waiver application did not include his signature.
Court’s reasoning
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) and the applicable local rule require an unrepresented party to personally sign pleadings, motions, and other court papers. The court cited the Supreme Court’s explanation that this requirement calls for a handwritten name or a mark placed by hand.
Order and effect
The court directed Moore to submit the signature page of his fee-waiver application with an original signature within 30 days of the order. No summons will issue at this time. If Moore complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of such an appeal.
Classification
This is a procedural order because it addresses a filing requirement and the processing of a fee-waiver application, rather than deciding the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.