Robin v. Bon Secours Community Hospital Subsiderary of WMCHealth
- Cathy Seibel
- 7:23-cv-09222
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Robin v. Bon Secours Community Hospital Subsiderary (sic), Judge Seibel ordered Christina M. Robin to submit an original complaint signature within 30 days.
The order directly affects Christina M. Robin, who must submit an original signature or face dismissal of the action. It also affects the defendants’ deadline to respond if they are served before she submits the signature.
What happened
Christina M. Robin sued Bon Secours Community Hospital Subsiderary (sic) of WMCHealth and other defendants without a lawyer. The court found that her complaint was not signed.
The court ordered Robin to resubmit the complaint’s signature page with an original signature within 30 days. If she does not comply, the action will be dismissed. Defendants generally would not have to respond until 21 days after she submits the original signature, even if they receive summonses and the complaint first.
Judge Cathy Seibel also ruled 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
- Robin v. Bon Secours Community Hospital Subsiderary of WMCHealth · No. 7:23-cv-09222
- Cathy Seibel
- Oct. 24, 2023
Background
Christina M. Robin brought this action without a lawyer. The complaint submitted to the court did not contain her signature. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims.
Signature requirement
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) and Local Civil Rule 11.1(a) require a party who is not represented by a lawyer to personally sign a pleading. The court explained that this requires a handwritten signature or a handwritten mark.
The court directed Robin 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.
Effect on service and response deadlines
The court stated that summonses had not yet been issued. If summonses were issued and Robin served the defendants before submitting her original signature, the defendants would not need to respond to the complaint until 21 days after Robin submitted the original signature.
Disposition
The court did not decide the merits of Robin’s claims. It ordered her to provide the required original signature and stated that the action will be dismissed if she fails to comply within the allowed time. 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 fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. Judge Cathy Seibel entered the order on October 24, 2023.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.