Friedberg v. Auto
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-08056
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Friedberg v. Crystal Auto, Chief Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Friedberg neither paid the filing fee nor submitted a request to proceed without paying.
Donna L. Friedberg’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice because she did not pay the filing fee or submit the required application to proceed without paying court fees.
What happened
In Donna L. Friedberg v. Crystal Auto, Inc., the court had ordered Friedberg to either submit a completed request to proceed without paying court fees or pay the required $405 filing fee within 30 days.
Friedberg did neither. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not permanently bar refiling; the opinion did not decide the underlying claims.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied fee-free status for any appeal, certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the clerk to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Friedberg v. Auto · No. 1:25-cv-08056
- Laura Swain
- Nov. 10, 2025
Background
On October 8, 2025, the court directed Donna L. Friedberg, within 30 days, either to submit a completed application to proceed without paying court fees or to pay the $405 required to file a civil action. The order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Ruling
Friedberg did not submit the application or pay the filing fees. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The opinion did not address the merits of the complaint.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. It directed the clerk to enter judgment.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.