Davis v. Otis Bantum Correctional Facility
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-09628
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Davis v. Otis Bantum Correctional Facility, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice after Davis failed to file required forms or pay filing fees.
Alex Davis's complaint was dismissed without prejudice because he did not submit the required fee-waiver materials or pay the filing fees. The court also denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
What happened
In Davis v. Otis Bantum Correctional Facility, the court had ordered Alex Davis to either submit an application to proceed without paying filing fees and a required prisoner authorization, or pay the $405 filing fees.
Davis did neither within the required thirty days. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling, and directed the clerk to enter judgment.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Davis permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Davis v. Otis Bantum Correctional Facility · No. 1:24-cv-09628
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 17, 2025
Background
The court had previously ordered Alex Davis, within thirty days, to submit a completed application to proceed without paying filing fees, commonly called an IFP application, and a prisoner authorization, or to pay the $405 in fees required to file a civil action. The earlier order stated that failing to comply would result in dismissal.
Ruling
The court found that Davis had not submitted the IFP application or prisoner authorization and had not paid the filing fees. It dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court also directed the clerk to enter judgment.
The court 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. The order did not address the underlying claims in the complaint.
Effect
The dismissal was based on Davis’s failure to satisfy the filing-fee or fee-waiver requirements, not on a decision about the merits of the complaint. The opinion states that the dismissal was without prejudice.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.