Kenan v. John and Jim Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07753
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In James Kenan v. John and Jim Doe, Chief Judge Swain ordered Kenan to pay filing fees or submit a complete fee-waiver application.
James Kenan, the self-represented plaintiff, must either pay the required fees or submit a completed application within 30 days for the case to proceed. The defendants are not otherwise addressed in the order.
What happened
James Kenan, who is representing himself and is currently held at St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, filed a civil action with a prisoner authorization and a request to proceed without paying fees upfront. The request was blank.
The court gave Kenan 30 days from September 25, 2025, to either pay $405 in fees or complete and submit the attached application. No summons will issue yet, and the case will be processed if he complies; the action will be dismissed if he does not comply within the deadline.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. The order did not address the substance of Kenan’s claims.
The detailed version
- Kenan v. John and Jim Doe · No. 1:25-cv-07753
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 25, 2025
Background
James Kenan filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he is currently held at the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center. He submitted a complaint, a prisoner authorization, and an application to proceed without prepaying court fees. The application was blank.
The court’s order
The court ordered Kenan, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay $405 in filing fees or complete and submit the attached application to proceed without prepayment of fees. The order explains that the $405 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee. If a prisoner is allowed to proceed without prepaying fees, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account; the $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that status.
If Kenan submits the application, he must label it with docket number 25-CV-7753 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If he 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.
Appeal and disposition
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied the ability to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim can count as a “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). Judge Laura Taylor Swain did not decide the merits of Kenan’s claims in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.