Lewis v. Christopher Maurise Brown
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-03601
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Lewis v. Brown, Chief Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice after Lewis neither paid filing fees nor submitted a request to proceed without paying.
Brittany Shay Lewis’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice because she did not submit the required fee-waiver application or pay the $405 filing fee. Her request to appeal without paying fees was also denied.
What happened
In Brittany Shay Lewis v. Christopher Maurise Brown, the court ordered Lewis to either submit a completed request to proceed without paying filing fees or pay the $405 required to file a civil case. The court warned that failing to do so within 30 days would lead to dismissal.
Lewis did neither. The opinion does not describe the claims in the complaint or explain the dispute between the parties.
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling. Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied Lewis permission to appeal without paying fees and directed the clerk to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Lewis v. Christopher Maurise Brown · No. 1:25-cv-03601
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 19, 2025
Background
The court had previously ordered Brittany Shay Lewis to submit a completed application to proceed without paying the court’s filing fees or to pay the $405 filing fee within 30 days. The earlier order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal of the complaint.
What the Court Decided
Lewis did not submit the application or pay the filing fee. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The opinion does not describe the complaint’s claims or reach the merits of the dispute.
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees. It also directed the clerk to enter judgment.
Classification
This is a procedural order because the case was dismissed for failure to satisfy filing-fee or fee-waiver requirements, without a ruling on the underlying claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.