Benton v. Adams
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-08919
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Benton v. Adams, Judge Swain dismissed the action without prejudice because Carzell Benton neither paid filing fees nor submitted a fee-waiver request.
Carzell Benton’s action was dismissed without prejudice. Eric Adams and the other defendants were not subject to a ruling on the merits of the claims.
What happened
Benton v. Adams involved Carzell Benton’s civil action against Eric Adams and other defendants. The court had ordered Benton to submit a completed request to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the required $405 filing fee within 30 days.
Benton did neither. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not permanently bar the action from being filed again. The court also directed the clerk to enter judgment dismissing the action.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain said any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Benton permission to appeal without paying the appeal-related filing fees. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Benton v. Adams · No. 1:24-cv-08919
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 10, 2025
Background
Carzell Benton brought this action against Eric Adams and other defendants. On December 9, 2024, the court ordered Benton to do one of two things within 30 days: submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee, or pay the $405 required to file a civil action in the Southern District of New York. The order warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal.
Court’s ruling
Benton did not submit the application or pay the filing fee. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal itself does not permanently bar a future filing. The court directed the clerk to enter judgment dismissing the action for this reason.
Appeal-related ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied Benton permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal. The order did not address the merits of Benton’s claims against the defendants.
Classification
This is a procedural order because the court dismissed the action for failure to pay the filing fee or submit the required fee-waiver application, without reaching the underlying claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.