Alexander v. Babuj
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-06310
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Alexander v. Babuj, Judge Swain dismissed Liam Alexander’s action without prejudice because he violated a filing injunction requiring permission before proceeding without paying filing fees.
The action filed under the name Liam Alexander was dismissed without prejudice. The court also denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees for an appeal.
What happened
In Alexander v. Babuj, the court said that Liam Alexander was Sean Matthew Finnegan, who had previously been barred from filing future civil actions without paying filing fees unless he first obtained permission from the court. The court also said that Finnegan had filed earlier cases under the name Liam Alexander.
Finnegan filed this action without a lawyer under the name Liam Alexander and requested permission to proceed without paying filing fees. He did not ask for the permission required by the earlier filing injunction. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice for failing to follow that order.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Alexander v. Babuj · No. 1:25-cv-06310
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 6, 2025
Background
The court stated that, in an earlier related proceeding, it had barred Sean Matthew Finnegan from filing future civil actions in the Southern District of New York without paying filing fees unless he first obtained the court’s permission. The court said that, after that filing injunction, Finnegan filed several civil actions under the name “Liam Alexander,” and that those actions were dismissed under the injunction.
Finnegan filed this action under the name Liam Alexander. He was representing himself and requested permission to proceed without paying filing fees, but he did not seek the permission required by the filing injunction.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1651 because Finnegan failed to comply with the court’s earlier order. The opinion does not decide the merits of the claims against Ashwin Babuj, Ethan Loeb, Maria Reichel, or Erika Stefanchik.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.