Sumpter v. Baumgardner
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-01480
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Sumpter v. Baumgardner, Judge Swain ordered payment or a corrected fee-waiver application before the case could proceed.
Wesley Thomas Sumpter, whose case cannot proceed until he pays the required fees or submits an amended application; the defendants are not required to respond at this stage.
What happened
Sumpter v. Baumgardner is a civil case brought by Wesley Thomas Sumpter without a lawyer. He submitted an application asking to proceed without paying court fees, but the application did not explain his financial circumstances well enough for the court to decide whether he could pay.
The court gave Sumpter 30 days to either pay $405 in fees or submit a signed, corrected application with facts showing that he cannot pay. No summons or answer will be issued for now.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered these choices and stated that failure to comply will result in dismissal without prejudice. She also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order, finding that such an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Sumpter v. Baumgardner · No. 1:25-cv-01480
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 26, 2025
Background
Wesley Thomas Sumpter brought the action without a lawyer. To proceed in federal court, he had to either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without paying fees. This type of application is commonly called an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Sumpter submitted such an application, but the court found that his answers did not establish that he was unable to pay. Although he stated that he had no income, he did not explain how he paid for necessities such as housing and food. The court therefore could not determine whether he qualified to proceed without prepaying the fees.
Order
The court ordered Sumpter, within 30 days of February 26, 2025, to do one of two things: pay the $405 in fees or submit the attached amended application. The amended application must provide facts addressing the missing information and must be labeled with docket number 24-CV-7901, as stated in the order. If the court grants the amended application, Sumpter may proceed without prepaying the fees.
No summons or answer will issue at this time. If Sumpter complies, the clerk’s office will process the case under its procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed without prejudice, meaning the order does not state that a later filing is barred.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Sumpter to pay the fees or submit an amended fee-waiver application; the order did not decide the underlying claims. The court also certified that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.