Khan v. Maginley-Liddie
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-03939
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Khan v. Maginley-Liddie, Judge Swain ordered a corrected prisoner authorization or fee payment within 30 days, or the case will be dismissed.
Shahab Khan and the processing of his civil action; the order requires a corrected prisoner authorization or payment before the case proceeds.
What happened
In Khan v. Maginley-Liddie, Shahab Khan, who is incarcerated and proceeding without a lawyer, asked to proceed without paying the fees upfront. He submitted the required application and authorization, but the authorization directed payments to the wrong federal court.
The court gave Khan 30 days to either pay the fees identified in the order as $402 or submit the attached corrected prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 25-CV-3939. The court said no summons would issue yet and that the case would be processed if he complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from this order would not qualify for fee-free appeal status because it would not be taken in good faith. The court did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Khan v. Maginley-Liddie · No. 1:25-cv-03939
- Laura Swain
- May 12, 2025
What the order concerns
Shahab Khan, who is incarcerated at Greene Correctional Facility and is proceeding without a lawyer, brought this civil action against Lynelle Maginley-Liddie. The order addresses the filing requirements for a prisoner seeking to proceed without paying court fees upfront, a status commonly called proceeding without prepayment of fees.
Problem with the submitted authorization
Khan submitted an application to proceed without prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. The authorization, however, allowed deductions from his prison account to be sent to the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, rather than to the Southern District of New York, where this action was filed.
Court’s directive
The court ordered Khan, within 30 days of May 12, 2025, either to pay the fees identified in the directive as $402 or to complete and submit the attached corrected prisoner authorization. The authorization must be labeled with docket number 25-CV-3939 (LTS). The opinion explains generally that a civil action requires $405 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, but it states that the specific payment alternative in this order is $402. The order does not explain that difference.
No summons was to issue at that time. If Khan complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The court also warned that certain future dismissals of a prisoner’s federal civil actions can count as filing “strikes” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Appeal determination
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3), the court certified that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain did not reach the merits of Khan’s underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.