Trowell v. City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-01771
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 13
In Trowell v. City of New York, Judge Swain gave Ramziddin Trowell 30 days to correct his filing and address the required fees.
Ramziddin Trowell, whose filing must be corrected and accompanied by payment or the required fee-waiver materials before the case can proceed; the City of New York is the named defendant.
What happened
In Trowell v. City of New York, Ramziddin Trowell submitted papers that included an unsigned statement without a caption or named defendants, along with other documents referring to several cases. The court said it was unclear whether he intended to start a new case.
The court gave Trowell 30 days to submit a signed, completed amended complaint naming the defendants and stating his claims. He also must either pay $405 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying the fees upfront and a prisoner authorization. No summonses will issue at this time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain said the case will be processed if Trowell complies, but will be dismissed if he does not comply within the allowed time. She also denied payment-free status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Trowell v. City of New York · No. 1:24-cv-01771
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 25, 2024
Background
Ramziddin Trowell, who the opinion says is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, filed the matter without a lawyer. The Clerk’s Office opened a five-page statement as a complaint against the City of New York. The statement was unsigned, did not contain a caption, and did not name any defendants. Trowell’s submission also included an application for pro bono counsel, a change-of-address form, a motion seeking an investigation of unidentified defendants, and papers opposing an unidentified motion concerning waiver of service.
The court noted that these papers referred to three other cases involving Trowell: one that had been dismissed and two that were pending. The court therefore found it unclear whether Trowell intended to start a new civil action or intended some of the papers for his other cases. Unlike his earlier cases, he did not submit an application to proceed without paying fees upfront or a prisoner authorization with this filing.
Order
The court granted Trowell leave to submit a signed and completed amended complaint within 30 days of the order. The amended complaint must use docket number 24-CV-1771 (LTS), name the defendants, and state his claims. If he wants to file documents in his other cases, the court directed him to identify the proper defendants and docket numbers in each document’s caption.
Trowell must also, within the same 30-day period, either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a completed and signed application to proceed without paying fees upfront and a signed prisoner authorization. The prisoner authorization would allow deductions from his prison account toward the filing fee. The court stated that no summonses would issue at that time.
Disposition
The order did not decide whether Trowell’s underlying claims were legally valid. It stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if he complied and would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed period. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied payment-free status for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 13-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.