Smith v. Miller
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-05811
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Smith v. Miller, Judge Swain dismissed Smith’s complaint for failure to state a claim after he did not file the required amended complaint.
Osmondo Dwayne Smith’s complaint was dismissed, affecting his claims against Superintendent Miller, Jane Doe (1), and Jane Doe (2). The court also denied Smith permission to proceed without paying the filing fee on appeal.
What happened
In Smith v. Miller, the court had ordered Osmondo Dwayne Smith to file an amended complaint after identifying problems with his original complaint.
Smith did not file the required amended complaint. The court received a letter and attached documents, but determined that the submission was unclear and did not fix the identified problems. The court then gave Smith another 30 days to amend, warning that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim for which relief could be granted. She also denied Smith permission to proceed without paying filing fees on appeal, certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Smith v. Miller · No. 1:23-cv-05811
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 13, 2024
Background
The court had previously directed Smith to file an amended complaint within 60 days. Smith did not file one. Instead, the court received a nine-page letter with approximately 140 pages of attached documents.
Because it was unclear whether Smith intended that submission to be an amended complaint, and because it did not correct the problems identified in the court’s earlier order, the court gave him an additional 30 days to file an amended complaint. That order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Ruling
Smith did not file an amended complaint. The court dismissed the complaint, which had been filed without the filing fee under the federal proceeding-without-fees statute, for failure to state a claim on which relief could be granted. The court relied on 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii).
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for an appeal. The Clerk of Court was directed to enter judgment. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.