Galeas v. Beck et al

Filing 5

ORDER denying 4 Motion for copies. Signed by Chief Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr on 3/2/12. (Pro se litigant served by US Mail.)(chh)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
CHARLOTTE DIVISION
3:10-cv-517-RJC
JORGE GALEAS, JR., a/k/a Jorge
Gevara,

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Plaintiff,
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v.
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THEODIS BECK,
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Defendant.
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____________________________________)

ORDER

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Plaintiff’s Motion for Copies, (Doc. No. 4). The
Clerk of Court is not obligated to make copies for Plaintiff’s use of his own pleadings. The law is
clear that copies of documents from a record may be provided to an indigent litigant at government
expense upon a showing by that litigant of a particularized need for the documents. Jones v.
Superintendent, Va. State Farm, 460 F.2d 150, 152-53 (4th Cir. 1972).

Here, the documents

Plaintiff seeks copied at taxpayer expense were created by him. In a persuasive decision addressing
this issue, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held, as follows:
[a]lthough the petitioner was granted leave to proceed in the district court as a
pauper, that status waives only ‘prepayment of fees and costs and security.’ It does
not give the litigant a right to have documents copied and returned to [him] at
government expense.
In re Richard, 914 F.2d 1526, 1527 (6th Cir. 1990) (citation omitted).
IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED that Plaintiff’s Motion for Copies (Doc. No. 4) is
DENIED.
Signed: March 2, 2012