Greathouse v. Bragg
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-06335
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Greathouse v. Bragg: Judge Swain granted Greathouse’s refund request and ordered a $282.27 partial filing-fee refund.
Leon Greathouse, whose facility trust-fund account was charged, and the Clerk of Court, which was ordered to issue the $282.27 refund.
What happened
In Greathouse v. Bragg, the court had dismissed Leon Greathouse’s action without prejudice after finding that his claim of poverty was untrue. Greathouse was held at the facility identified in the opinion and was representing himself.
The court had directed the facility’s warden to stop sending filing-fee payments from Greathouse’s account. Even so, another $282.27 was later sent to the Clerk of Court, bringing the total collected to $350.
Judge Swain granted Greathouse’s request and ordered the Clerk of Court to refund $282.27. She also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Greathouse v. Bragg · No. 1:24-cv-06335
- Laura Swain
- June 16, 2025
Background
Leon Greathouse filed this action while representing himself. In an earlier order, the Court revoked his status allowing him to proceed without paying the filing fee upfront and dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(A), after determining that his allegation of poverty was untrue.
At the time of that earlier dismissal, $67.73 had been deducted from Greathouse’s facility trust-fund account and received by the Clerk of Court toward the $350 filing fee. The Court directed the warden or superintendent of the facility where Greathouse was held to stop sending additional payments. The Clerk nevertheless later received another $282.27 from the account, bringing the total collected to $350.
Greathouse’s Request
Greathouse later sent the Court a letter that the Court understood as a request for a refund of the $282.27 collected after the Court had ordered payments to stop. The Court found that amount had been sent in error because it was disbursed after the earlier dismissal order and payment directive.
Ruling
The Court granted Greathouse’s request and directed the Clerk of Court to issue him a partial refund of the filing fee in the amount of $282.27.
The Court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.