Dale G. Becker v. Betty Montgomery, Attorney General of Ohio, et al. (532 U.S. 757)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 29, 2001 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 532 U.S. 757 · 121 S. Ct. 1801
- Decided
- May 29, 2001
- Term
- October Term 2000
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner Dale G. Becker, an Ohio prisoner, instituted a pro se civil rights action in a Federal District Court, contesting conditions of his confinement. Upon dismissal of his complaint for failure to state a claim for relief, Becker sought to appeal. Using a Government-printed form, Becker timely filed a notice of appeal that contained all of the requested information. On the line tagged “(Counsel for Appellant),” Becker typed, but did not hand sign, his own name. For want of a handwritten signature on the notice as originally filed, the Court of Appeals dismissed Becker’s appeal. The appellate court deemed the defect “jurisdictional,” and therefore not curable outside the time allowed to file the notice. We granted review to address this question: “When a party files a timely notice of appeal in district court, does the failure to sign the notice of appeal require the court of appeals to dismiss the appeal?” 531 U.S. 1110 (2001). Our answer is no. For want of a signature on a timely notice, the appeal is not automatically lost. The governing Federal Rules direct that the notice of appeal, like other papers filed in district court, shall be signed by counsel or, if the party is unrepresented, by the party himself. But if the notice is timely filed and adequate in other respects, jurisdiction will vest in the court of…
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