Rogers v. Walmart
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-02345
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Rogers v. Walmart, Judge Swain ordered Rogers to pay $405 or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days.
Joshua Rogers must either pay $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days of the order. If he does not comply, the action will be dismissed; Walmart is the named defendant, but the court did not address the merits.
What happened
Joshua Rogers sued Walmart without a lawyer, but he did not submit the required fees or an application to proceed without prepaying them. The order did not address the claims in his complaint.
The court gave Rogers 30 days from the order’s date to either pay $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. No summons would be issued at that time, and the case would be processed only if he complied. If he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Rogers v. Walmart · No. 1:25-cv-02345
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 7, 2025
Background
Joshua Rogers brought this civil action against Walmart without a lawyer. He submitted a complaint but did not pay the required fees and did not submit an application to proceed without prepayment of fees. The opinion does not describe the allegations or legal claims in the complaint.
Court’s Order
The court explained that filing a civil action required either payment of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, totaling $405, or submission of a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court ordered Rogers, within 30 days of April 7, 2025, to do one of those two things. If he submitted the application, it had to identify docket number 25-CV-2345 (LTS).
The court stated that if it granted the application, Rogers could proceed without prepaying the fees. No summons would issue at that time. If Rogers did not comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed. The order did not decide the merits of Rogers’s claims against Walmart.
Appeal Provision
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The opinion cited a Supreme Court decision discussing good-faith appeals involving nonfrivolous issues.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.