Moore v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04536
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Moore v. Doe, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Moore did not sign the required fee-waiver application.
John A. Moore's complaint was dismissed without prejudice because he did not submit the required signed application page. The court also denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
What happened
John A. Moore brought this case against Doe without a lawyer. The court required him either to pay the $405 filing fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying those fees, along with a required prisoner authorization.
Moore submitted the documents, but he did not sign the fee-waiver application. The court gave him 30 days to submit the signature page with an original signature and warned that failing to do so would lead to dismissal. He did not submit the signed page.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal does not bar refiling. The court also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Moore v. Doe · No. 1:25-cv-04536
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 3, 2025
Background
John A. Moore brought the action without a lawyer. In an order dated June 5, 2025, the court directed him either to pay the $405 fees required to bring a civil action or to submit a signed application to proceed without paying those fees and a prisoner authorization.
Moore submitted the documents, but he did not sign the application. In a June 27, 2025 order, the court directed him to resubmit the application’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. That order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal of the complaint.
Ruling
Moore did not submit the signed signature page. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a). A dismissal without prejudice does not bar refiling.
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 Moore permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.