Burns v. Warden and/or Superintendent of the Westchester County Jail
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-05258
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Burns v. Warden, Chief Judge Swain ordered payment or an application to waive the filing fee within 30 days.
George Burns must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days; otherwise, the action will be dismissed. The respondent was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
Burns v. Warden and/or Superintendent of the Westchester County Jail concerns George Burns’s petition asking the court for a writ of habeas corpus. He filed the petition without paying the required fee or submitting an application to proceed without paying it upfront.
The court gave Burns 30 days from June 27, 2025, to pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court said no response from the respondent was required at that time and that the case would be processed if Burns complied.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Burns to take one of those two steps and stated that the action will be dismissed if he does not comply within the allowed time. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Burns v. Warden and/or Superintendent of the Westchester County Jail · No. 1:25-cv-05258
- Laura Swain
- June 27, 2025
Background
George Burns, who was proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. To begin such a case in the Southern District of New York, a petitioner must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without prepaying court fees.
Burns submitted the petition without the filing fee and without an application to proceed in forma pauperis.
Order
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Burns, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $5 filing fee or complete and submit the attached application. The application was to identify docket number 25-CV-5258 (LTS). The court explained that, if it granted the application, Burns could proceed without prepaying fees.
The court stated that no answer from the respondent was required at that time. If Burns complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
The court also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied in forma pauperis status for purposes of an appeal.
Disposition
The court directed Burns to pay the filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepaying it. The order did not decide the merits of Burns’s habeas petition.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.