Swinson v. City of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-01788
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Swinson v. City of New York, Judge McMahon ordered plaintiff to correct signatures and pay fees or submit forms before the case proceeds.
Randy Swinson, an incarcerated self-represented plaintiff, must correct the filing deficiencies for the action to proceed; the order does not decide the claims against the City of New York or the other named defendants.
What happened
In Swinson v. City of New York, Randy Swinson, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a case without signing the complaint or his request for the Court to request counsel. He also did not pay the filing fees or submit the required completed forms to request permission to proceed without paying fees upfront.
The court gave Swinson 30 days to submit original signatures on the complaint and counsel-request application. He must also either pay $400 in fees or submit a signed amended application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization allowing installment payments from his account.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered these corrections before the case could proceed and directed that no summons issue yet. The order states that the action will be dismissed if Swinson does not comply, and it denies permission to appeal without prepaying appellate fees.
The detailed version
- Swinson v. City of New York · No. 1:20-cv-01788
- Colleen McMahon
- Mar. 3, 2020
Background
Randy Swinson filed this action while incarcerated in the Manhattan Detention Center and without a lawyer. The complaint and a two-page application asking the court to request counsel did not contain original signatures. Swinson also submitted a blank application to proceed without prepaying filing fees and did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Order regarding signatures
The court relied on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) and Local Civil Rule 11.1(a), which require an unrepresented party to personally sign a pleading, motion, or other paper. The court directed Swinson to resubmit the complaint’s signature page and the two-page counsel-request application with original signatures within 30 days of the order.
Filing fees and prisoner authorization
The court explained that filing a civil action requires $400 in fees: a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. Alternatively, Swinson could request permission to proceed without prepaying the fees by submitting a signed amended application and a prisoner authorization. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee would be collected in installments from his prisoner account. The $50 administrative fee would not apply to a person granted that status.
Disposition
Judge Colleen McMahon directed Swinson, within 30 days, to provide the original signatures and either pay the $400 filing fees or submit the amended application and prisoner authorization. The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures if Swinson complied, but that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying appellate fees. This order addressed filing requirements and did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.