Slade v. Correctional Health John Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-01419
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Slade v. Correctional Health John Doe, Judge Swain ordered a complete amended complaint or missing page within 30 days.
Ricco D. Slade, who must provide the complete amended complaint or the allegedly missing page; if he does not, the amended complaint already on the docket will remain the operative pleading.
What happened
In Slade v. Correctional Health John Doe, Ricco D. Slade told the court that a page was missing from his amended complaint as it appeared on the docket. He is representing himself and is detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island.
The Clerk’s Office checked the paper filing and confirmed that the received complaint did not include the page Slade numbered “2.” The court ordered Slade to submit a complete amended complaint or only the page he believes is missing within 30 days.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain said that if Slade does not comply, the court will treat the complaint currently on the docket as the operative pleading. Judge Swain also denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees because the court certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Slade v. Correctional Health John Doe · No. 1:23-cv-01419
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 12, 2023
Background
Ricco D. Slade, who is detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island and is representing himself, filed an amended complaint after the court directed him to do so on March 13, 2023. The court received that amended complaint on March 27, 2023. On April 10, Slade wrote that the docketed copy was missing one of three handwritten pages. He said the missing page was hand-numbered page two and asked the court to digitize it.
Court’s Findings
The Clerk’s Office retrieved the paper version of the amended complaint and confirmed that every page it received had been scanned and docketed. The paper complaint, as received, did not contain a hand-numbered page two. The docketed copy therefore showed pages one and three but not page two.
Order
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Slade to submit a complete copy of his amended complaint within 30 days of the order. As an alternative, he may submit only the page he believes is missing. The submission must go to the court’s Pro Se Intake Unit and identify docket number 23-CV-1419 (LTS). If Slade does not comply within the allowed time, the court will treat the amended complaint already docketed as the operative pleading in the action.
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. It therefore denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees for purposes of an appeal. The order addressed the completeness of the pleading and did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.