Clapp v. Vail
- Philip Halpern
- 7:24-cv-00324
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Clapp v. Vail, Judge Halpern dismissed the complaint without prejudice after Clapp failed to pay required filing fees following loss of fee-waiver status.
Joel M. Clapp’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice, and his fee-waiver status for an appeal was denied. The case was closed.
What happened
In Clapp v. Vail, the court had previously revoked Joel M. Clapp’s status allowing him to bring the case without paying filing fees and ordered him to pay the required fees within 30 days.
Clapp did not pay the fees within the required time. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling.
Judge Halpern also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Clapp fee-waiver status for an appeal. The Clerk of Court was directed to close the case.
The detailed version
- Clapp v. Vail · No. 7:24-cv-00324
- Philip Halpern
- Aug. 1, 2025
Background
Joel M. Clapp sued Capt. Steve Vail and other defendants. In an earlier order dated June 30, 2025, the court revoked Clapp’s status allowing him to proceed without paying filing fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). The court gave him 30 days to pay the filing fees required to start a civil action and stated that the case would be dismissed without prejudice if he did not pay.
Ruling
The court found that Clapp had not paid the required filing fees within the time set by the earlier order. It dismissed the complaint without prejudice. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. The Clerk of Court was directed to close the case.
Effect
The order ended this case, but the dismissal was without prejudice. The opinion does not state whether Clapp later refiled or took an appeal.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.