Lewis v. Dutchess County DSS
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07494
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Judge Swain dismissed Regina Lewis v. Dutchess County DSS without prejudice because Lewis did not obtain required permission to proceed without paying fees.
Regina Lewis's newly filed civil action was dismissed without prejudice because she did not obtain the permission required to file without paying fees. The opinion does not address the claims against Dutchess County DSS or the other defendants.
What happened
In Regina Lewis v. Dutchess County DSS, Regina Lewis filed a new civil case without a lawyer in the Southern District of New York. She had not paid the filing fees or submitted an application to proceed without paying them.
A 2021 court order required Lewis to obtain permission before filing any future civil case in that court without paying the fees. Because she did not seek that permission, the court dismissed this case without prejudice.
Judge Swain also ruled that an appeal would not qualify for permission to proceed without paying fees and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment dismissing the case. The court did not address the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Lewis v. Dutchess County DSS · No. 1:25-cv-07494
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 22, 2025
Background
Regina Lewis filed this civil action without a lawyer. She had not paid the fees required to bring the case and had not filed an application to proceed without paying those fees. The court therefore understood that Lewis was seeking to proceed without paying the filing fees.
The court stated that, by an order dated November 16, 2021, it had barred Lewis from filing any future civil action without paying the fees in the Southern District of New York unless she first obtained permission from the court. Lewis did not seek that permission before filing this action.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice because Lewis failed to comply with the 2021 order. The dismissal was based on the filing requirement and did not decide the merits of Lewis's claims.
The court 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 fees for an appeal. It directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment dismissing the action.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.