Williams v. State of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-02576
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Williams v. State of New York, Chief Judge Swain vacated the dismissal and judgment, reopened the case, and denied appeal-related fee-waiver status.
Derrick Lavell Williams, whose case was reopened after the court received his application to proceed without paying the filing fee; any appeal remains subject to the denial of fee-waiver status and the absence of a certificate of appealability.
What happened
In Williams v. State of New York, the court had dismissed the case after Derrick Lavell Williams did not pay the $5 fee or submit an application to proceed without paying court fees. The court entered judgment the next day.
Williams later submitted the required application. The court vacated the dismissal and judgment and directed the Clerk of Court to reopen the case.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied fee-waiver status for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The court also said that a certificate allowing an appeal would not issue because Williams had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied.
The detailed version
- Williams v. State of New York · No. 1:25-cv-02576
- Laura Swain
- June 2, 2025
Background
By an order dated May 19, 2025, the Court dismissed this action without prejudice because Petitioner Derrick Lavell Williams had not paid the $5.00 filing fee or submitted an application to proceed without paying the fee. The Clerk of Court entered civil judgment on May 20, 2025.
The Clerk’s Office received Williams’s application to proceed without paying the fee on May 28, 2025. The application was dated May 20, 2025.
Court’s Action
Because Williams submitted the application, the Court vacated its dismissal order and civil judgment and directed the Clerk of Court to reopen the matter.
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 fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. The Court also determined that Williams had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so it did not issue a certificate of appealability under 28 U.S.C. § 2253.
Disposition
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain vacated the dismissal order and civil judgment and directed the Clerk of Court to reopen the case. The Court denied fee-waiver status for an appeal and declined to issue a certificate of appealability. The opinion did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.