In Re: Ferris A. Christian, Sr.
- Gregory Woods
- 1:25-cv-00574
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In re Christian v. United States Trustee: Judge Woods declined unrelated filings, extended the appeal-brief deadline, and warned of dismissal without prejudice.
Ferris A. Christian, Sr., the self-represented appellant, must file a brief supporting his bankruptcy appeal by March 13, 2025, or the case will be dismissed without prejudice. The United States Trustee is the appellee.
What happened
In re Ferris A. Christian, Sr. v. United States Trustee concerns Christian’s appeal from a December 5, 2024 judgment entered by the bankruptcy court. Christian was representing himself.
Christian filed a labor complaint about unpaid wages and unfair labor practices, then sought a subpoena involving Wells Fargo Bank and two people who were not parties to the appeal. The court said those filings were unrelated because this case concerns only the bankruptcy judgment.
Judge Gregory H. Woods extended Christian’s deadline to file an appeal brief to March 13, 2025, but warned that failing to file it would result in dismissal without prejudice. The court also denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- In Re: Ferris A. Christian, Sr. · No. 1:25-cv-00574
- Gregory Woods
- Mar. 6, 2025
Background
Ferris A. Christian, Sr., acting without a lawyer, appealed a December 5, 2024 judgment entered by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The district court had ordered Christian to serve and file a brief supporting his appeal by February 27, 2025.
Filings Unrelated to the Appeal
Christian later filed a letter attaching a “Labor Standards Complaint Form.” The form alleged that a non-party owed him damages for unpaid wages and unfair labor practices. The court previously explained that it would not act on that filing because the only matter before it was the appeal from the bankruptcy court’s judgment.
Christian then filed an application for a subpoena directed at Wells Fargo Bank and identifying Antoinette Crawford and Leo Gagion as defendants, even though they were not parties to the appeal. He also filed an affidavit of service concerning the purported subpoena. The court stated that it would not act on those filings because they did not relate to the appeal. It directed that future filings on this docket be directly connected to the bankruptcy appeal and said that separate issues or complaints must be raised in a separately filed lawsuit.
Deadline and Disposition
Because Christian had not filed anything relating to the appeal by March 6, the court extended his deadline by two weeks, to March 13, 2025, in light of his self-represented status. The court warned that it did not expect to extend the deadline again and that an unrelated submission would not satisfy the requirement. It stated that failure to file a supporting brief by March 13 would result in dismissal of the case without prejudice, meaning the dismissal would not bar refiling.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free appellate status for an appeal from the order. Judge Gregory H. Woods did not decide the merits of Christian’s appeal from the bankruptcy judgment in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.