Bell v. Goodman Group
- Katherine Menendez
- 0:24-cv-02883
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 2
In Kathy Bell v. Goodman Group, Judge Docherty denied Bell’s fee-waiver application without prejudice and gave her 21 days to reapply or pay.
Kathy Bell must either pay the filing fee or submit a new application within 21 days; otherwise, dismissal of the action will be recommended.
What happened
In Kathy Bell v. Goodman Group, Kathy Bell asked to proceed without paying the federal court’s filing fee. The court reviewed the financial information in her application, which appeared to report $39,424 in earnings during the past year and $3,891 expected during the next month, and stated that she was unmarried with no dependents.
The court denied the application without prejudice, meaning Bell may submit a new application if missing information could affect the decision. She must either pay the filing fee or submit a new application within 21 days of the order. If she does neither, the court will recommend dismissing the case for failing to pursue it.
Judge John F. Docherty signed the order. The order addresses only Bell’s request to proceed without paying fees; it does not decide the underlying claims against Goodman Group.
The detailed version
- Bell v. Goodman Group · No. 0:24-cv-02883
- Katherine Menendez
- July 24, 2024
Background
Kathy Bell filed an application to proceed in federal court without prepaying fees or costs. The court treated the application as a request to proceed without paying the filing fee, commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis.
The court said the application was not entirely clear but appeared to state that Bell had earned $39,424 during the preceding 12 months and planned to earn $3,891 during the next month. It also indicated that Bell was unmarried and had no dependents.
Reasoning
The court explained that the relevant question is whether the applicant can afford the costs of proceeding without undue hardship or being deprived of life’s necessities. Based on the information in Bell’s application, the court could not conclude that paying the filing fee would cause that type of hardship.
Ruling and Effect
The court denied without prejudice Bell’s application. This means Bell may submit a new application if she believes that information missing from the current application could affect the court’s decision. Otherwise, she must pay the action’s filing fee.
The order gives Bell 21 days from the order’s date to do one of those two things. If she does neither, the order states that the matter will be recommended for dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to prosecute. The court did not dismiss the action in this order and did not decide the underlying dispute.
The order was signed by United States Magistrate Judge John F. Docherty.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.