Mallgren v. Does
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-05989
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Mallgren v. Does, Judge Swain dismissed the action without prejudice because Mallgren filed without paying fees or obtaining required court permission.
Anthony Brian Mallgren's action against the defendants identified as John Does was dismissed without prejudice. Mallgren remains subject to the prior filing injunction, and permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal was denied.
What happened
Anthony Brian Mallgren sued defendants identified as John Does in Mallgren v. Does. The court had previously barred Mallgren from filing future civil actions without paying filing fees unless he first obtained permission to proceed without paying them.
Mallgren filed this new action without paying the filing fees and without asking the court for permission to file it. The court therefore assumed he sought to proceed without paying the fees and found that he had not followed the earlier filing restriction.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the action without prejudice for violating that restriction. Mallgren remains subject to the filing injunction, and the court denied permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal, certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the clerk to enter a civil judgment.
The detailed version
- Mallgren v. Does · No. 1:25-cv-05989
- Laura Swain
- July 23, 2025
Background
In an earlier related proceeding, the court barred Anthony Brian Mallgren from filing future civil actions in the Southern District of New York without first obtaining the court's permission to proceed without paying filing fees. The court says it imposed that filing injunction because of Mallgren's history of frivolous, vexatious, or otherwise nonmeritorious litigation in this court and other federal courts.
Reason for dismissal
Mallgren filed this new civil action without paying the fees required to initiate it and without asking the court for permission to file the action. The court assumed that he sought to proceed without paying the fees. Because he had not obtained the permission required by the earlier injunction, the court dismissed the action under 28 U.S.C. § 1651.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice for failure to comply with the earlier filing injunction. The opinion states that Mallgren remains subject to that injunction. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. It directed the clerk to enter a civil judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.