Grandel v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-06997
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Grandel v. Doe, Chief Judge Swain ordered Grandel to pay fees or submit forms within 30 days or face dismissal.
Victor Grandel, who must either pay the required fees or submit the specified applications within 30 days for the case to proceed; John Doe is not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
Grandel v. Doe was filed by Victor Grandel, who is incarcerated and representing himself. He submitted a complaint without paying the required fees or providing the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying fees upfront.
The court ordered Grandel, within 30 days, either to pay $405 or submit a signed fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization. The authorization allows installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prison account. No response from John Doe is required at this time, and the action will be dismissed if Grandel does not comply.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on August 27, 2025. She also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Grandel v. Doe · No. 1:25-cv-06997
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 27, 2025
Background
Victor Grandel filed this civil action without paying the filing fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a required prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Grandel is incarcerated at West Facility Annex and is representing himself. The opinion does not address the underlying claims against John Doe.
Order
The court directed Grandel to take one of two actions within 30 days of the order’s date:
1. Pay $405 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee; or 2. Submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying fees and the prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-6997 (LTS).
If the court grants the fee-waiver application, the $350 filing fee will still be collected in installments from Grandel’s prison account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The prisoner authorization also directs the facility to provide certified account statements for the previous six months and to make the required deductions.
No answer from John Doe is required at this stage. If Grandel complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal for being frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim could count as a statutory “strike” affecting a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future federal civil actions.
Appeal-fee ruling and classification
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. This is a procedural order about payment and filing requirements; the court did not decide the merits of Grandel’s claims.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.