Lujan v. I.D.O.C. ( 2021 )

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 MICHAEL V. LUJAN, Case No. 2:21-cv-01442-RFB-BNW 4 Plaintiff ORDER 5 v. 6 I.D.O.C., et al., 7 Defendants 8 9 I. DISCUSSION 10 On August 3, 2021, Plaintiff, an inmate in the custody of the Nevada Department 11 of Corrections (“NDOC”), submitted a complaint. (ECF No. 1-1). Plaintiff has not 12 submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis or paid the full $402 filing fee in 13 this matter. 14 Complaint 15 The Court notes that Plaintiff did not sign the complaint at ECF No. 1-1. Under 16 Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a plaintiff who is not represented by 17 counsel is required to sign his complaint. Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(a). Because Plaintiff did not 18 sign the complaint, the Court cannot consider it. 19 As such, the Court grants Plaintiff a one-time extension to submit a signed 20 amended complaint to the Court on or before October 4, 2021. If Plaintiff chooses to file 21 an amended complaint, he is advised that an amended complaint supersedes (replaces) 22 the original complaint and, thus, the amended complaint must be complete in itself. See 23 Hal Roach Studios, Inc. v. Richard Feiner & Co., Inc., 896 F.2d 1542, 1546 (9th Cir. 1989). 24 Therefore, a mere signature page will not be sufficient. Plaintiff should file the signed 25 amended complaint on this Court’s approved prisoner civil rights form, and it must be 26 entitled “First Amended Complaint.” 27 / / / 28 / / / 1 Application to Proceed in Forma Pauperis 2 Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2) and Local Rule LSR 1-2, an inmate seeking to begin 3 a civil action in this Court may apply to proceed in forma pauperis in order to file the civil 4 action without prepaying the full $402 filing fee. To apply for in forma pauperis status, the 5 inmate must submit all three of the following documents to the Court: 6 (1) a completed Application to Proceed in Forma Pauperis for Inmate, this 7 Court’s approved form (i.e. pages 1 through 3 with the inmate’s two signatures on 8 page 3), 9 (2) a Financial Certificate properly signed by both the inmate and a prison or jail 10 official (i.e. page 4 of this Court’s approved form), and 11 (3) a copy of the inmate’s prison or jail trust fund account statement for the 12 previous six-month period. 13 The Court will grant Plaintiff a one-time extension to file a fully complete 14 application to proceed in forma pauperis containing all three of the required documents, 15 or in the alternative, pay the full $402 filing fee for this action on or before October 4, 16 2021. Absent unusual circumstances, the Court will not grant any further extensions of 17 time. If Plaintiff does not file a fully complete application to proceed in forma pauperis 18 with all three required documents or pay the full $402 filing fee on or before October 4, 19 2021, this case will be subject to dismissal without prejudice for Plaintiff to file a new case 20 with the Court when Plaintiff has all three of the documents needed to file a fully complete 21 application to proceed in forma pauperis or pays the full $402 filing fee. 22 A dismissal without prejudice means Plaintiff does not give up the right to refile the 23 case with the Court, under a new case number, when Plaintiff has all three documents 24 needed to submit with an application to proceed in forma pauperis. Alternatively, Plaintiff 25 may choose not to file an application to proceed in forma pauperis and instead pay the 26 full filing fee of $402 on or before October 4, 2021 to proceed with this case. 27 / / / 28 / / / 1 II. CONCLUSION 2 For the foregoing reasons, IT IS ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court will send to 3 Plaintiff the approved form for filing a § 1983 complaint, instructions for the same, and a 4 copy of his original complaint at ECF No. 1-1. If Plaintiff files a signed amended 5 complaint, he should use the Court's approved form and he must write the words “First 6 Amended” above the words “Civil Rights Complaint” in the caption. 7 IT IS FURTHER ORDERD that if Plaintiff chooses to file a signed amended 8 complaint, Plaintiff will file the signed amended complaint with this Court on or before 9 October 4, 2021. 10 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, if Plaintiff does not file a signed amended 11 complaint on or before October 4, 2021, this case will be subject to dismissal without 12 prejudice for Plaintiff to refile the case with the Court, under a new case number, when 13 Plaintiff is able to file a signed amended complaint. 14 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court will send Plaintiff the 15 approved form application to proceed in forma pauperis by an inmate, as well as the 16 document entitled information and instructions for filing an in forma pauperis application. 17 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that on or before October 4, 2021, Plaintiff will either 18 pay the full $402 filing fee for a civil action (which includes the $350 filing fee and the $52 19 administrative fee) or file with the Court: 20 (1) a completed Application to Proceed in Forma Pauperis for Inmate on this 21 Court’s approved form (i.e. pages 1 through 3 of the form with the inmate’s two 22 signatures on page 3), 23 (2) a Financial Certificate properly signed by both the inmate and a prison or jail 24 official (i.e. page 4 of this Court’s approved form), and 25 (3) a copy of the inmate’s prison or jail trust fund account statement for the 26 previous six-month period. 27 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, if Plaintiff does not file a fully complete 28 application to proceed in forma pauperis with all three documents or pay the full $402 4 filing fee for a civil action on or before October 4, 2021, this case will be subject to 2 dismissal without prejudice for Plaintiff to refile the case with the Court, under a new case number, when Plaintiff has all three documents needed to file a complete application to 4| proceed in forma pauperis or pays the full $402 filing fee. 5 DATED: August 9, 2021. 6 Gx lea Are fat, 7 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 -4-