Kenyatta v. Tiara Lee Rowson
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07293
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Charles Kenyatta, Jr. v. Tiara Lee Rowson, Judge Swain ordered payment or fee-waiver paperwork within 30 days, without deciding the lawsuit’s claims.
Charles Kenyatta, Jr. must either pay the required fees or submit the required fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization within 30 days; Tiara Lee Rowson was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
Charles Kenyatta, Jr. filed this case against Tiara Lee Rowson without paying the required fees or submitting the paperwork needed to ask to proceed without paying them upfront. The order states that Kenyatta is incarcerated and representing himself.
Judge Swain ordered Kenyatta, within 30 days, to either pay $405 or submit a completed application and authorization allowing filing-fee payments to be taken from his prison account in installments. No answer from Rowson was required at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain stated that the case would proceed through the Clerk’s Office if Kenyatta complied, but that the action would be dismissed if he did not. She also denied payment-waiver status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Kenyatta v. Tiara Lee Rowson · No. 1:25-cv-07293
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 5, 2025
Background
Charles Kenyatta, Jr. filed a civil action against Tiara Lee Rowson. The opinion states that Kenyatta is incarcerated at Lakeview Correctional Facility and is proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted his complaint without paying the required filing fees and without completing an application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. The authorization directs the correctional facility to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner’s account in installments and to provide certified account statements for the prior six months. Even if the court grants the application to proceed without prepaying fees, the prisoner remains responsible for paying the full $350 filing fee in installments.
Within 30 days of the order, Kenyatta was ordered to either pay the $405 or submit the required application and prisoner authorization. The documents were to be labeled with the docket number specified in the order. No answer was required from Rowson at that time.
Effect of the Order
If Kenyatta complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order did not address the underlying claims against Rowson.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.