Mott v. Lane
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04063
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Mott v. Lane, Judge Swain denied reconsideration and dismissed the action without prejudice after Mott neither paid fees nor sought a fee waiver.
The order affected Ricky Mott by dismissing his action without prejudice and affected ABC Mining by leaving in place the earlier dismissal of its claims. It also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal.
What happened
In Mott v. Lane, Ricky Mott did not pay the required filing fees or submit an application to have them waived after the Court gave him 30 days to do so. An earlier order had also dismissed ABC Mining’s claims without prejudice to the company retaining a lawyer.
Mott filed an opposition that the Court treated as a request to reconsider the dismissal of ABC Mining’s claims. The Court found that he gave no reason supporting reconsideration.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied the reconsideration request and dismissed the action without prejudice because Mott did not pay the fees or submit the required application. The Court also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal and directed the Clerk to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Mott v. Lane · No. 1:25-cv-04063
- Laura Swain
- July 30, 2025
Background
The Court’s June 24, 2025 order directed Ricky Mott either to submit an application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $405 required to file a civil action. That order warned that failing to submit the application within 30 days would result in dismissal. It also dismissed the claims brought by ABC Mining without prejudice to ABC Mining retaining counsel to litigate those claims.
Mott did not submit the application or pay the filing fees. Instead, he filed an “Opposition to Motion to Dismiss or Terminate Ricky Mott or ABC Mining Co. as Plaintiff,” apparently challenging the dismissal of ABC Mining from the case.
Rulings
The Court treated Mott’s filing as a motion for reconsideration under Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It denied that motion because Mott did not provide a reason justifying reconsideration of the decision to dismiss ABC Mining’s claims.
The Court also dismissed the action without prejudice because Mott neither paid the filing fees nor submitted an application to proceed without paying them. The Court certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. It directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.