ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION AND DISMISSING
PLAINTIFF'S COMPLAINT WITHOUT PREJUDICE, CERTIFYING THAT AN
APPEAL WOULD NOT BE TAKEN IN GOOD FAITH, AND DENYING LEAVE
TO PROCEED IN FORMA PAUPERIS ON APPEAL
Before the Court is Magistrate Judge Charmiane G. Claxton's Order Granting Motion for Leave to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (and) Report and Recommendation ("R&R"), filed September 12, 2025. (ECF No. 9.) In the R&R, the Magistrate Judge granted Plaintiff Jessie Fields's motion to proceed in forma pauperis, and recommended that the Court dismiss Fields's complaint based on the statute of limitations having run on his § 1983 claim. A magistrate judge may submit to a judge of the court proposed findings of fact and recommendations for dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B). "Within 14 days after being served with a copy of the recommended disposition, a party may serve and file specific written objections to the proposed findings and recommendations." Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(2); see also 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) (2017). A district court reviews de novo only those proposed findings of fact or conclusions of law to which a party specifically objects; the rest are reviewed for clear error. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1); Fed. R.
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Civ. P. 72(b)(3). Plaintiff's deadline to object to the R&R was September 26, 2025, and no objections have been filed.1
On December 9, 2024, Judge Samuel H. Mays, who was previously assigned to the case, entered an order directing Fields to comply with 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1) or pay the $405 civil filing fee. (ECF No. 3.) Judge Mays ordered Fields "to notify the Court immediately, in writing, of any change of address," and warned him that if he "fails to abide by this requirement or any other requirement of this order, the Court may impose appropriate sanctions, up to and including dismissal of this action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b), without any additional notice or hearing by the Court." (Id. at PageID 9.) Fourteen days after that order, Field filed his Motion for Leave to Proceed In Forma Pauperis. (ECF No. 5.)
Since then, however, two filings that were mailed to Fields at his address on record were returned to the Court as undeliverable, including the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation, which was returned on December 30, 2025. (See ECF Nos. 8, 10.) Fields's failure to provide the Court with an updated address is grounds for dismissing his complaint, consistent with Judge Mays's order. In any event, the fact that Fields failed to provide an updated address does not excuse his failure to object to the R&R.
Given that Fields did not object to the R&R, the Court has therefore reviewed it in its entirety for clear error and finds none. The R&R properly explains that the incident of which Fields complains—his being shot by a Brownsville police officer on November 13, 1993, allegedly in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights—is well outside of the one-year statute of limitations applicable to § 1983 claims. (ECF No. 9 at PageID 26.) Because Fields filed his
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complaint more than thirty years after the incident, the Magistrate Judge properly concluded that the complaint should be dismissed as time-barred.
Judge Claxton also recommends that this Court "certify pursuant to Rule 24(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that any appeal in this matter by Plaintiff is not taken in good faith and that leave to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal be DENIED." (Id. at PageID 28.) She further recommends that, if Fields "files a notice of appeal, he must pay the $455 appellate filing fee in full or file a motion to proceed in forma pauperis in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit within thirty (30) days." (Id.) Because these recommendations are well-taken, the Court adopts them as well.
Therefore, the Court ADOPTS the Magistrate Judge's Report in its entirety,
DISMISSES the complaint WITHOUT PREJUDICE, and CERTIFIES pursuant to Rule 24(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that any appeal in this matter by Plaintiff is not taken in good faith and that leave to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED, this 2nd day of March, 2026. s/ Sheryl H. Lipman
SHERYL H. LIPMAN
CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE