Bell v. Intergen Health Management
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-09140
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bell v. Intergen Health Management, Judge Swain treated the signed complaint as an amended complaint in an earlier case and administratively closed this action.
James Bell and Intergen Health Management; the order moved Bell’s signed complaint into the earlier related action and administratively closed this action without deciding the underlying claims.
What happened
In Bell v. Intergen Health Management, James Bell filed a signed complaint that was nearly identical to a complaint he had filed earlier in a related case. The earlier complaint lacked his original signature page.
Because Bell was representing himself in both cases, the court treated the new complaint as an amended complaint filed in the earlier case, complying with the court’s prior order. The court directed the Clerk of Court to file it there.
Judge Swain directed the Clerk to administratively close this action and place a copy of the order in the earlier case. She also denied Bell permission to appeal without paying filing fees, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Bell v. Intergen Health Management · No. 1:22-cv-09140
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 28, 2022
Background
James Bell was representing himself in this action and in an earlier related action, No. 1:22-CV-7338. In the earlier action, the court had ordered Bell to submit a signed signature page because his complaint did not include his original signature. Bell did not submit that signature page within the required 30 days.
On October 24, 2022, Bell filed the complaint that started this action. The court found that the complaint was virtually identical to the complaint in the earlier related action and that Bell had signed the new complaint.
Court’s Action
Because Bell was representing himself in both actions, the court construed the complaint in this action as an amended complaint in the earlier related action. The court directed the Clerk of Court to file the complaint from this action as an amended complaint in that case and to docket a copy of the order there.
The court also directed the Clerk to administratively close this action. The order did not decide the underlying claims described in the complaint.
Appeal-Filing-Fee Ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. The court therefore denied permission to appeal without paying the filing fee.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.