Willis v. New York City Department of Homeless
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-05091
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Willis v. New York City Department of Homeless, Judge Swain ordered payment, a fee-waiver request, or withdrawal within 30 days.
Rodney Willis must pay the required fees, submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment, or move to withdraw the case within 30 days. If he does not comply, the action will be dismissed. The defendants are the New York City Department of Homeless Services, Kevin Perdomo, and Denise Turner.
What happened
Rodney Willis filed this new case without a lawyer against the New York City Department of Homeless Services, Kevin Perdomo, and Denise Turner. The court said he had already filed a substantially similar case against the same defendants, and it was unclear whether he intended to start a second case or add documents to the earlier one.
Judge Swain ordered Willis to either pay the $405 filing and administrative fees, submit a signed application to proceed without paying those fees, or move to withdraw this case. He could also submit a statement explaining why this case and the earlier case should be treated as related.
Judge Swain stated that no summons would issue yet and that the case would be dismissed if Willis did not comply within 30 days. She also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Willis v. New York City Department of Homeless · No. 1:24-cv-05091
- Laura Swain
- July 10, 2024
Background
Rodney Willis brought this action without a lawyer against the New York City Department of Homeless Services, Kevin Perdomo, and Denise Turner. The court explained that, in a prior related proceeding against the same defendants, Willis had asserted the same claims. The defendants had filed a motion to dismiss in that earlier proceeding, and Willis had responded. The next day, he filed a new complaint alleging the same facts, while adding several exhibits that were not attached to the earlier complaint.
Willis had not paid the fees required to start a new civil action or submitted an application to proceed without prepaying them. The Clerk’s Office nevertheless opened this case. The court said it was unclear whether Willis intended to start a new action or instead intended to submit a document in the earlier proceeding.
Court’s Order
The court directed Willis, within 30 days, to choose how to proceed. If he intended to continue this new action, he had to pay $405: a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee. Alternatively, he could submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees, commonly called an IFP application. If the court granted that application, he could proceed without paying the fees in advance.
Willis could also submit a Related Case Statement explaining why this case should be treated as related to the earlier proceeding. If he did not intend to start a new action, he could move to withdraw this case and seek permission in the earlier proceeding to submit any additional documents.
The court ordered that no summons issue at that time. It stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Willis complied with the order, but that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time. The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
Disposition and Classification
This was a procedural order concerning payment of filing fees, a fee-waiver application, possible withdrawal, and the relationship between two cases. It did not decide the underlying claims. Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Willis to comply within 30 days; the order did not dismiss the action at that time.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.