Knight v. United States
Nickholas Knight, Sr. v. United States; Westchester County Superior Court; Westchester County D.O.C.; Hasting Police Department; Legal Aid Society
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-07550
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Nickholas Knight, Sr. v. United States, Chief Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice after Knight neither paid fees nor filed a request to proceed without paying them.
Nickholas Knight, Sr.'s complaint against the named defendants was dismissed without prejudice. The order also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
What happened
In Nickholas Knight, Sr. v. United States, the court had ordered Knight to either submit a completed request to proceed without paying filing fees or pay the required filing fees. The order warned that failing to do so would lead to dismissal.
Knight did neither. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal does not bar refiling. The court also directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Knight permission to appeal without paying the required fees.
The detailed version
- Knight v. United States · No. 1:25-cv-07550
- Laura Swain
- Nov. 17, 2025
Background
By an order dated September 12, 2025, the court directed Nickholas Knight, Sr. to submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, commonly called an IFP application, or to pay the $405 filing fee. The court warned that failing to comply within thirty days would result in dismissal of the complaint.
Ruling
Knight did not submit the application or pay the filing fee. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court also directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Appeal determination
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 permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.