Brown v. Ferguson
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-05066
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Kurell Brown v. Jahnah Ferguson, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice after Brown neither submitted the required fee-waiver application nor paid $405.
Kurell Brown's civil complaint was dismissed without prejudice because Brown did not submit the required amended application to proceed without paying filing fees or pay the $405 filing fee. The order also denied permission to proceed without paying fees on appeal.
What happened
In Kurell Brown v. Jahnah Ferguson, et al., the court had ordered Brown to submit a completed application to proceed without paying filing fees or pay $405 to file a civil action. The order warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal.
Brown did neither. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar a later filing. The court also denied permission to proceed without paying fees on appeal, certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the clerk to enter judgment.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on September 24, 2025. The court dismissed the case because Brown did not follow the filing-fee requirements, without deciding the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Brown v. Ferguson · No. 1:25-cv-05066
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 24, 2025
Background
By an order dated July 29, 2025, the court directed Kurell Brown, within 30 days, either to submit a completed amended application to proceed in forma pauperis (an application to proceed without paying the filing fees) or to pay the $405 required to file a civil action. The court warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal of the complaint.
Ruling
The court found that Brown had not submitted the amended application or paid the required fees. It therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court did not reach the underlying claims.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. Finally, it directed the clerk to enter judgment. Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.