Hanna v. BRC Jack Ryan Shelter
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-05654
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Hanna v. BRC Jack Ryan Shelter, Judge Swain ordered pro se plaintiff Leroy Hanna to sign filings within 30 days or face dismissal without prejudice.
Leroy Hanna must sign and submit the required signature pages within 30 days to avoid dismissal without prejudice of the action.
What happened
In Hanna v. BRC Jack Ryan Shelter, Leroy Hanna filed a complaint and letters without signing them. Because Hanna was representing himself, the court required him to sign the filings.
The court ordered Hanna to submit the attached signature pages within 30 days. No summons or answer will issue at this time. If he complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case; if he does not, the action will be dismissed without prejudice.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying appeal fees.
The detailed version
- Hanna v. BRC Jack Ryan Shelter · No. 1:25-cv-05654
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 27, 2025
Background
Leroy Hanna brought this action without a lawyer. The complaint and letters he submitted were unsigned.
Court’s Analysis
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) requires an unrepresented party to personally sign every pleading, written motion, and other paper filed with the court. The court cited that rule and a Supreme Court decision interpreting it to require a handwritten name or a handplaced mark.
Order
The court directed Hanna to sign and submit the attached signature pages within 30 days of the order. No summons or answer will issue at this time. If Hanna complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he fails to comply within the permitted time, the action will be dismissed without prejudice.
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 an appeal. The order did not decide the merits of Hanna’s claims.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.