Santos v. Orange County Correctional Facility
- Jesse Furman
- 1:21-cv-01759
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Santos v. Orange County Correctional Facility, Judge Furman ordered the pro se petitioner to submit an original signature within 30 days.
The pro se petitioner, who was required to provide an original signature to continue the action.
What happened
In Santos v. Orange County Correctional Facility, the pro se petitioner submitted a petition without a signature. The court explained that court filings by people without lawyers must be personally signed.
The court ordered the petitioner to resubmit the petition’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. The court warned that the action may be dismissed if the petitioner does not comply.
Judge Furman also ruled that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying the appeal filing fee.
The detailed version
- Santos v. Orange County Correctional Facility · No. 1:21-cv-01759
- Jesse Furman
- Mar. 9, 2021
Background
The petitioner brought the action without a lawyer and submitted a petition that did not contain a signature. The order identifies the petition form as one seeking relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, but the court did not address the underlying claims.
Court’s analysis
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) requires every pleading, motion, and other paper to be signed by an attorney or, when a party is unrepresented, by that party personally. The court also cited Local Civil Rule 11.1(a) and explained that the signature must be handwritten or another personally placed mark.
Ruling
The court directed the petitioner to resubmit the petition’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days of the order. The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to the petitioner and record service on the docket. The court stated that the action may be dismissed if the petitioner does not comply within the allowed time.
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 and denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for an appeal. This order did not decide the merits of the petition.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.