Joseph v. Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health
- Nelson Roman
- 7:20-cv-00420
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Joseph v. Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health, Chief Judge McMahon gave Joseph one final chance to submit a properly signed complaint.
Thomas T. Joseph, who was required to submit an original signature page within 30 days to avoid dismissal; the defendants were not required to respond because no summons issued.
What happened
Joseph v. Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health concerns a complaint whose signature page did not bear Plaintiff Thomas T. Joseph’s original signature. The court had also required him to pay the filing fees or request permission to proceed without paying them.
Joseph paid the filing fees, but he did not resubmit the signature page with his original signature. Because he was representing himself and had paid the fees, the court allowed one final 30-day opportunity to correct the signature problem.
Chief Judge McMahon ordered Joseph to resubmit the signature page within 30 days and directed that no summons issue yet. The order stated that the action would be processed if he complied and would be dismissed if he did not; it also denied permission to proceed without paying appeal fees for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Joseph v. Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health · No. 7:20-cv-00420
- Nelson Roman
- Mar. 3, 2020
Background
In earlier orders dated January 17, 2020, the court directed Plaintiff Thomas T. Joseph to do two things within 30 days: pay the fees required to bring the action or submit an application to proceed without paying those fees, and resubmit his complaint’s signature page bearing his original signature. Joseph paid the filing fees on February 3, 2020, but he did not resubmit the signature page with his original signature.
Order
The court noted Joseph’s status as a self-represented party and the fact that he had paid the filing fees. It therefore gave him one last opportunity to resubmit the signature page with his original signature. The court directed him to do so within 30 days of the order and attached a copy of the signature page.
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Joseph and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. The order stated that, if Joseph complied, the action would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal-fee ruling
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 the required fees for an appeal from this order.
Disposition
This was a procedural order addressing the complaint’s signature and filing requirements. The court did not decide the underlying claims against the Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health or the other defendants.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.