Mott v. Lane
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04063
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Mott v. Lane, Judge Swain ordered Ricky Mott to pay fees or seek a waiver and dismissed ABC Mining’s claims without prejudice to retaining counsel.
Ricky Mott must either pay $405 or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days, update his mailing address, and cannot yet obtain issuance of a summons. ABC Mining’s claims were dismissed without prejudice to retaining counsel and ABC Mining was terminated from the action. The court has not yet addressed Mott’s motions.
What happened
In Mott v. Lane, Ricky Mott sued on behalf of himself and ABC Mining without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without paying them. He was representing himself without a lawyer.
The court said Mott must either pay $405 or submit a signed application asking to proceed without prepaying the fees within 30 days. The court also said Mott could not represent ABC Mining without a lawyer because he did not allege that he was an attorney or that ABC Mining was a sole proprietorship.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed ABC Mining’s claims without prejudice to the company retaining counsel and directed the Clerk to remove ABC Mining from the case. The court will address Mott’s motions after he pays the fees or his fee-waiver application is granted, and directed him to update his mailing address.
The detailed version
- Mott v. Lane · No. 1:25-cv-04063
- Laura Swain
- June 24, 2025
Background
Ricky Mott filed this action on behalf of himself and ABC Mining while representing himself. The complaint named Judge Sean Lane, Attorney Schell, Attorney Manzano, and others as defendants. Mott submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without filing an application to proceed without prepaying them. The court also noted that Mott sought reassignment of the action because the court was assigned to another pending action involving the same defendants, but the opinion says he offered no basis for reassignment.
Fees and application to proceed without prepaying fees
The court explained that a civil action requires either payment of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, totaling $405, or a signed application asking to proceed without prepaying the fees. The court directed Mott, within 30 days of the order, to do one of those two things. If he files the application, it must identify docket number 25-CV-4063 (LTS). If the application is granted, Mott may proceed without prepaying the fees.
No summons will issue at this time. If Mott complies with the order, 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 will address Mott’s motions after he pays the fees or after his application is granted.
ABC Mining’s claims
The court held that a person representing himself without a lawyer cannot bring an action on behalf of another entity. The opinion recognizes that some courts allow a sole proprietorship to proceed without a lawyer because it has no separate legal existence from its owner, but Mott did not allege that he was an attorney or that ABC Mining was a sole proprietorship.
The court therefore dismissed the claims brought on behalf of ABC Mining, without prejudice to ABC Mining retaining counsel. The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate ABC Mining from the action. This ruling did not dismiss Mott’s own claims.
Other directions and disposition
The court directed Mott to update his mailing address because a standing order had been returned as undeliverable. It also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain entered the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.