Dean v. U.S.A. Inc.
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04604
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Dean v. U.S.A., Inc., Judge Swain dismissed Alexandra M. Dean’s complaint without prejudice after she neither paid $405 nor submitted an IFP application.
Alexandra M. Dean’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice because she did not pay the filing fee or submit the required fee-waiver application. U.S.A., Inc. was the named defendant, and judgment was ordered entered.
What happened
In Dean v. U.S.A., Inc., the court had ordered Alexandra M. Dean to submit an application to proceed without paying filing fees or to pay the $405 filing fee within 30 days. The order warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal.
Dean did neither. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling. The opinion did not address the complaint’s underlying claims.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also directed the clerk to enter judgment, terminate a listed motion, and deny Dean permission to appeal without paying fees because the court certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Dean v. U.S.A. Inc. · No. 1:25-cv-04604
- Laura Swain
- July 29, 2025
Background
By an order dated June 13, 2025, the court directed Alexandra M. Dean to either submit a completed application to proceed without paying filing fees or pay the $405 required to file a civil action. The court warned that failure to comply within 30 days would result in dismissal of the complaint.
Ruling
The court found that Dean had not submitted the fee-waiver application or paid the filing fee. It therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The opinion did not decide the underlying claims.
Other Orders
The court directed the clerk to terminate the motion at ECF 4 and enter judgment. It also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.