Scales v. Zelle
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07454
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
William Scales; Taskem v. Zelle was dismissed without prejudice for unpaid filing fees, Judge Swain ruled, and appeal-related fee waiver was denied.
William Scales and Taskem, whose complaint against Zelle was dismissed without prejudice because they did not pay the required filing fee; the court also denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
What happened
In William Scales; Taskem v. Zelle, the court had ordered the plaintiffs to pay the $405 filing fee within 30 days. They did not pay, and the deadline expired.
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice. It also stated that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain entered judgment on October 14, 2025. The order did not decide the underlying claims against Zelle.
The detailed version
- Scales v. Zelle · No. 1:25-cv-07454
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 14, 2025
Background
The court had previously ordered William Scales and Taskem to pay the $405 fee required to file a civil action. The order gave them 30 days and warned that failure to pay would result in dismissal. The plaintiffs did not pay the fee before the deadline expired.
The court’s footnote states that Taskem, which it describes as an artificial entity, cannot proceed without paying the fee, and that Scales was barred from proceeding without paying in any new action on or after July 23, 2025. The footnote is cut off in the provided text.
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. This was a procedural dismissal based on the failure to pay the filing fee; the court did not address the claims’ merits.
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. The court ordered that judgment enter.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.