Logan Nicanor Lee v. Columbia University et al
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-08853
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Logan Nicanor Lee v. Columbia University, Judge Swain ordered Lee to pay $405 or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Logan Nicanor Lee must either pay $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. The action may be dismissed if he does not comply, and he was denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
What happened
Logan Nicanor Lee v. Columbia University concerns Lee’s civil action, which he filed without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them. The opinion identifies Lee as representing himself.
The court gave Lee 30 days from November 3, 2025, to either pay $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court said no summons would issue yet and that the action would be dismissed if Lee did not comply. If Lee submits the application and the court grants it, he may proceed without paying the fees in advance.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order. She also denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Logan Nicanor Lee v. Columbia University et al · No. 1:25-cv-08853
- Laura Swain
- Nov. 3, 2025
Background
Logan Nicanor Lee brought this civil action pro se, meaning without a lawyer. Lee submitted the complaint without paying the required filing fees and without submitting an application to proceed in forma pauperis, or IFP, which means proceeding without paying fees in advance.
Order
The court explained that proceeding with a civil action required either payment of $405—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submission of a signed IFP application. The court ordered Lee, within 30 days of the order’s date, to do one of those two things.
The court stated that, if Lee submitted the IFP application and the court granted it, he could proceed without prepaying the fees. No summons would issue at that time. The case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Lee complied, but the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed period.
Appeal certification
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Lee to pay the required fees or submit an IFP application within 30 days. The order did not decide the merits of Lee’s claims against the defendants.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.