Celli v. Engelmayer
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-06542
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Celli v. Engelmayer, Judge Swain ordered Lucio Celli to provide an original signature and pay fees or apply to proceed without prepayment.
Lucio Celli was required to correct the complaint’s signature and satisfy the filing-fee requirements within 30 days. The case would be processed only if he complied, and the court said the action would be dismissed if he did not.
What happened
Lucio Celli filed Celli v. Engelmayer without a handwritten signature, filing fees, or completed forms to request permission to proceed without paying fees upfront. The opinion states that Celli was detained in the Bureau of Prisons’ custody and was representing himself.
The court gave Celli 30 days to resubmit the complaint’s signature page with an original signature and either pay $402 or submit the required application and authorization forms. The court said no summons would issue yet and warned that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order directing these corrections and denied permission to appeal without paying fees, stating that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Celli v. Engelmayer · No. 1:22-cv-06542
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 10, 2022
Background
Lucio Celli filed this civil action against Judge Engelmayer and other defendants while representing himself. The court stated that Celli was detained in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons at FMC Lexington in Kentucky. The complaint was submitted without an original signature, without the required filing fees, and without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or the required prisoner authorization.
Original signature
The court explained that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 requires an unrepresented party to sign a pleading personally. Because Celli’s complaint lacked a signature, the court directed him to resubmit the complaint’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days of the order. The court attached a copy of the signature page for that purpose.
Filing fee and payment forms
The court stated that filing a civil action required either payment of $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submission of an application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization permits those deductions and requires certified account statements for the preceding six months. The court instructed Celli to label any submitted forms with docket number 22-CV-6542 (LTS).
Order and effect
Within 30 days, Celli had to provide the original signature and either pay the $402 in fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization. No summons would issue at that time. If Celli complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. This order addressed filing requirements and did not decide the merits of Celli’s claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.