Cervantes v. Eng

Filing 5

ORDER STRIKING ANSWER 4 signed by District Judge Dale A. Drozd on 3/12/2018. (Jessen, A)

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 AURORA CERVANTES, 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. 14 DARREL ENG, 15 No. 1:17-cv-01771-DAD-MJS ORDER STRIKING ANSWER (Doc. No. 4) Defendant. 16 17 On March 12, 2018, an answer was filed in this action, purportedly on behalf of defendant 18 Darrel Eng. (Doc. No. 4.) That answer was signed by Erik Barbic, who is not a named defendant 19 in this action and does not appear to be an attorney. 20 Pursuant to Rule 11(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, any pleading must be 21 signed by “at least one attorney of record in the attorney’s name—or by a party personally if the 22 party is unrepresented.” Local Rule 131 further provides that “[t]he name, address, telephone 23 number, and the California State Bar membership number of all attorneys . . . shall appear in the 24 upper left-hand corner of the first page of each document presented for filing.” 25 Here, it is unclear what relationship Mr. Barbic has with defendant Eng and what 26 authority Mr. Barbic has to appear in court on behalf of defendant Eng. Absent some indication 27 that the answer was filed by an attorney or an individual with authority to appear pro se on behalf 28 of defendant Eng in this action, the answer cannot be considered by the court. 1 1 Accordingly, the answer (Doc. No. 4) is hereby stricken without prejudice to its re-filing 2 in the event the above stated requirement can be met. 3 IT IS SO ORDERED. 4 Dated: March 12, 2018 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2

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