Dowling v. Attorney General's Office
- Laura Swain
- 1:26-cv-04852
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
Angela D Dowling v. Attorney General’s Office was dismissed without prejudice after Judge Swain found Dowling had not paid filing fees or requested a fee waiver.
Angela D Dowling’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice, and fee-waiver status was denied for any appeal; the Clerk of Court was directed to enter judgment.
What happened
In Angela D Dowling v. Attorney General’s Office, the court had ordered Dowling to either pay the fees required to file a civil case or submit a completed request to proceed without paying those fees.
Dowling did neither within the required thirty days, so the court dismissed the complaint without prejudice. This means the dismissal did not bar refiling, although the opinion does not address the complaint’s underlying claims.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal, directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment, and ended the case on July 17, 2026.
The detailed version
- Dowling v. Attorney General's Office · No. 1:26-cv-04852
- Laura Swain
- July 17, 2026
Background
On June 15, 2026, the court ordered Angela D Dowling to do one of two things within thirty days: submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee, or pay the fees required to file a civil action. The order warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal of the complaint.
Ruling
The court found that Dowling had not submitted the fee-waiver application or paid the filing fees. It therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The opinion does not decide the underlying claims.
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 an appeal. It also directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.