Fraiser v. Howard
- Jesse Furman
- 1:21-cv-09904
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Fraiser v. Howard, Judge Swain ordered an unsigned pro se petitioner to submit original signatures within 30 days or face denial of the petition.
Damien Fraiser, who must provide original signatures on his petition and fee application within 30 days to avoid denial of the petition; David Howard was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
In Fraiser v. Howard, Damien Fraiser filed a petition and an application to proceed without paying court fees, but neither document had a signature.
The court ordered Fraiser to send pages bearing his original signatures within 30 days. The court said no response from David Howard was required at that time, and the case would proceed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Fraiser complied.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order. She stated that failing to comply within the deadline would result in denial of the petition, and she denied permission to proceed without paying fees for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Fraiser v. Howard · No. 1:21-cv-09904
- Jesse Furman
- Nov. 29, 2021
Background
Damien Fraiser brought this action without a lawyer. He submitted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and an application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without paying the court’s filing fees. Neither submission included a signature.
Order
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 pleadings and other court papers. The court explained that the required signature must be handwritten or another mark physically placed by the signer.
The court directed Fraiser to resubmit the signature pages of both the petition and the fee application with his original signatures within 30 days of the order. The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him a copy of the order and record service on the docket. The court stated that David Howard did not need to file an answer at that time. If Fraiser complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the permitted time, the petition would be denied.
Appeal and disposition
The court 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 fees for purposes of an appeal. This order directed correction of the missing signatures and did not decide the underlying petition.
Judge
The opinion was signed by Laura Taylor Swain, Chief United States District Judge.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.