Blanco v. Judge Valerie Pels
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-05435
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Blanco v. Pels, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Blanco neither paid filing fees nor submitted a required fee-waiver application.
Carlita Blanco's complaint was dismissed without prejudice; the order also denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
What happened
Carlita Blanco sued Judge Valerie Pels and other defendants in the Southern District of New York.
The court had given Blanco 30 days to submit an updated application to file without paying the filing fee or to pay the required $405 fee. Blanco did neither and did not otherwise contact the court.
Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment. She also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Blanco v. Judge Valerie Pels · No. 1:25-cv-05435
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 6, 2025
Background
The court had previously ordered Carlita Blanco to submit an amended application to proceed without paying filing fees or to pay the $405 filing fee required for a civil action. The court gave her 30 days to comply and warned that failure to do so would result in dismissal.
What the Court Decided
The court found that Blanco had not submitted an amended fee-waiver application, paid the filing fee, or otherwise communicated with the court. It therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal itself does not bar a later filing, although the opinion does not address any other requirements for doing so.
The court directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment. It also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
Classification
This is a procedural order because the complaint was dismissed for failure to comply with the court’s filing-fee or fee-waiver requirement, without reaching the merits of the claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.