Sterling v. The State of New York
- Cathy Seibel
- 7:20-cv-10804
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Sterling v. The State of New York, Judge McMahon ordered Brandon Sterling to correct unsigned filing materials within 30 days or face dismissal.
Brandon Sterling, a prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, must provide the missing original signature and prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
Sterling v. The State of New York concerns Brandon Sterling’s civil lawsuit, which he filed without a lawyer while detained in the Sullivan County Jail. He asked to proceed without paying filing fees up front.
The court found that Sterling’s application was unsigned and that he had not submitted the required prisoner authorization. That authorization allows fee payments to be deducted from a prisoner’s account in installments and requires recent account statements to be sent to the court.
Judge McMahon ordered Sterling to submit an originally signed application page and a completed, signed prisoner authorization within 30 days. The court said the action would be dismissed if he did not comply, and no summons would issue at that time.
The detailed version
- Sterling v. The State of New York · No. 7:20-cv-10804
- Cathy Seibel
- Dec. 23, 2020
Background
Brandon Sterling, who was detained in the Sullivan County Jail and was proceeding without a lawyer, brought a civil action against the State of New York, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, and Fishkill Correctional Facility.
A prisoner filing a federal civil action must either pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without prepaying them. The court explained that a prisoner who receives permission to proceed without prepayment must pay the filing fee in installments deducted from the prisoner’s account. A prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the previous six months.
Deficiencies in the filing
Sterling submitted an unsigned application to proceed without prepaying fees and did not submit a prisoner authorization. The court cited Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a), which requires an unrepresented party to personally sign papers filed with the court. The court stated that the signature must be handwritten or otherwise personally placed by the signer.
Order and disposition
The court directed Sterling to resubmit the application’s signature page with an original signature and to submit a completed and signed prisoner authorization within 30 days of the order. The documents were to include docket number 20-CV-10804 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail Sterling a copy of the order and record service on the docket.
No summons was to issue at that time. If Sterling complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed. The court also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
Additional warning
The court cautioned that a prisoner’s case dismissed as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim may count as a “strike” under the federal prisoner-litigation statute. After three strikes, a prisoner generally cannot proceed without prepaying fees in a new action unless an exception for imminent danger of serious physical injury applies.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.