Buxbaum v. Hellman
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-00601
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
Buxbaum v. Hellman: Judge Swain dismissed the case without prejudice after Buxbaum neither sought fee waiver nor paid filing fees.
Michael Buxbaum, whose action against Howard Hellman was dismissed without prejudice for failing to submit an application to waive the filing fee or pay the required $405 fee.
What happened
In Buxbaum v. Hellman, the court ordered Michael Buxbaum to submit an application to proceed without paying court fees or pay the $405 required to file a civil case. He had 30 days to comply.
Buxbaum did neither. The court therefore dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar him from filing again.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Buxbaum v. Hellman · No. 1:25-cv-00601
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 13, 2025
Background
On January 28, 2025, the court directed Plaintiff Michael Buxbaum to submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee, commonly called an IFP application, or to pay the $405 filing fee required for a civil action. The court warned that failing to comply within 30 days would result in dismissal.
Ruling
Buxbaum did not submit an IFP application and did not pay the filing fee. The court dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal.
Effect
The opinion does not describe the underlying claims against Howard Hellman. The dismissal was based on failure to submit the required fee application or pay the filing fee, not on a decision about those claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.