Howard v. New York City
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-07013
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Howard v. New York City, Judge Swain ordered Ronald Howard to submit original signatures within 30 days or face dismissal, while withholding summonses.
Ronald Howard's case was placed on hold pending submission of original signatures. The order required action within 30 days and stated that failure to comply would result in dismissal; it also prevented summonses from issuing at that time.
What happened
In Howard v. New York City, Ronald Howard filed the action without a lawyer. He submitted a prisoner authorization and an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but neither document had a signature.
The court ordered Howard to resubmit the signature pages with original signatures within 30 days. No summons would be issued at that time. The court said the case would be processed if he complied and would be dismissed if he did not comply within the deadline.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also stated that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Howard v. New York City · No. 1:23-cv-07013
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 8, 2023
Background
Ronald Howard brought the action without a lawyer. He submitted two documents without signatures: a prisoner authorization and an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees. The opinion states that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) and the court's local rule require an unrepresented party to sign court papers personally. The court explained that this requires a handwritten name or a hand-placed mark.
Order
The court directed Howard to resubmit the signature page of each document with an original signature within 30 days of the order. Copies of the signature pages were attached. The court directed that no summons issue at that time.
Disposition
The order stated that, if Howard complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied Howard permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not address the merits of Howard's underlying claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.