Opinion
No. 13 C 6141
09-04-2013
BENESSE R. SIMPSON, Plaintiff, v. PATRICK R. DONAHOE, Postmaster General, Defendant.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Benesse Simpson ("Simpson") has filed a self-prepared Complaint of Employment Discrimination ("Complaint") , in which she charges the United States with having failed to promote her, having failed to stop harassment and having retaliated against her because of her assertion of rights protected by Title VII and 42 U.S.C. §1981 (those charges are contained in Complaint ¶12(c), (f) and (g)), all because of her African-American race (that claim is advanced in Complaint ¶9(e)). Simpson's Complaint is timely filed--according to Complaint ¶7.2(b), she received the adverse Final Agency Decision from the United States Postal Service on May 31 of this year, and she filed suit within 90 days after such receipt.
"Self-prepared" is used in the sense that Simpson has availed herself of the printed form of Complaint provided by the Clerk's Office for use by pro se plaintiffs. Simpson has filled in all of the information called for by that form through handprinted insertions
Because Simpson is employed by the United States Postal Service, the defendant properly named in the Complaint is Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.
But before this Court can proceed with the scheduling of an initial status date (as it normally does at the outset in all cases newly assigned to its calendar), it requires some further information in connection with Simpson's contemporaneously filed In Forma Pauperis Application ("Application"). Application ¶2.a states that her monthly salary after taxes comes to $3,000, and Application ¶4.f appears to reflect her receipt of public assistance of $1,100 during the preceding 12 months. On the other side of the coin, Application ¶7 appears to report a monthly mortgage obligation of $2,246, while Application 510 refers to Simpson's support obligations as to four dependent children amounting to $1,400 monthly.
That figure is itself puzzling, because Simpson has filled in on the same line that her monthly salary (presumably gross) is $4,600. Those gross and net figure seem difficult to reconcile, and Simpson must provide some explanation.
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Thus the limited reporting in the Application clearly calls for further elaboration, including the question posed by n.3. Simpson is ordered to file a supplemental statement on or before September 18, 2013 explaining her inability to pay the $400 filing fee in this action. This Court will then determine how to
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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge