Mallgren v. United States
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04002
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Mallgren v. United States, Judge Swain dismissed Mallgren’s action without prejudice because he filed without fees and lacked required permission.
The dismissal affected Mallgren’s new civil action. The court also denied him permission to appeal without paying fees and directed entry of a civil judgment; the opinion does not describe any effect on the United States beyond its status as defendant.
What happened
In Mallgren v. United States, Mallgren filed a new civil action without paying the filing fee, which the court treated as a request to proceed without paying fees. A 2016 order had barred him from filing future civil actions without paying fees unless he first obtained the court’s permission.
Mallgren had not obtained that permission before filing this action. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice for violating the earlier filing restriction. The court also directed the clerk to enter a civil judgment.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees. The opinion does not describe the claims Mallgren sought to bring in this action.
The detailed version
- Mallgren v. United States · No. 1:25-cv-04002
- Laura Swain
- May 20, 2025
Background
A 2016 order in an earlier related proceeding barred Mallgren from filing future civil actions in the Southern District of New York without paying filing fees unless he first obtained the court’s permission. The court had imposed that restriction because of Mallgren’s history of litigation that the court described as frivolous, vexatious, or otherwise lacking merit in that court and other federal courts.
Mallgren submitted this new civil action without paying the filing fees. The court therefore assumed that he sought to proceed without paying those fees. The opinion does not identify the claims or legal theories in the new action.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice because Mallgren had not obtained permission before filing an action without paying the fees, as required by the earlier filing restriction. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal itself does not bar a later filing, although the opinion states that the filing restriction still required him to obtain permission for a new action filed without paying fees.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees. It directed the clerk to enter a civil judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.