Seals v. Avem Sr.
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-05595
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Seals v. Avem Sr., Judge Swain dismissed Tina Seals’s action without prejudice because she did not follow a prior filing restriction.
Tina Seals’s newly filed civil action was dismissed without prejudice because she did not pay the filing fee, submit a fee-waiver application, or obtain the required permission to file.
What happened
In Seals v. Avem Sr., Tina Seals filed a new civil case without a lawyer. A prior order had required her to obtain court permission before filing future cases without paying the filing fee.
She did not pay the $405 filing fee, submit an application to proceed without paying it, or ask for permission to file. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice for violating the earlier order.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, denied fee-free status for an appeal, and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment dismissing the action.
The detailed version
- Seals v. Avem Sr. · No. 1:25-cv-05595
- Laura Swain
- July 11, 2025
Background
Tina Seals filed this civil action without a lawyer. In a prior related proceeding, the court had barred her from filing future civil actions in this court without paying the filing fee unless she first obtained permission from the court.
Seals did not pay the $405 fee required to start this action, submit an application to proceed without paying the fee, or request permission to file. The opinion states that she therefore failed to comply with the earlier court order.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1651 for failure to comply with the earlier filing restriction. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. It directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment dismissing the action.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.