Weaver v. The New York City Housing Authority
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-10760
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Weaver v. The New York City Housing Authority, Judge McMahon ordered plaintiffs to pay $400 or submit applications to proceed without prepaying fees.
The plaintiffs, especially Weaver, Naseva, Concepción, and Halasa, were required to pay the $400 court fees or submit separate applications to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. Any individual plaintiff who failed to comply could have that plaintiff’s claims dismissed.
What happened
In Weaver v. The New York City Housing Authority, the plaintiffs filed their complaint without paying the required court fees. The opinion says the plaintiffs were proceeding without lawyers, and that Flores was the only plaintiff who had submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court gave Weaver, Naseva, Concepción, and Halasa 30 days to pay $400 or each submit a separate, completed, and signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court said that an application, if granted, would allow that plaintiff to proceed without paying the fees in advance.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the Clerk of Court to send the order to each individual plaintiff and stated that no summons would issue at that time. She warned that the court would dismiss any individual plaintiff’s claims if that plaintiff did not comply, and denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Weaver v. The New York City Housing Authority · No. 1:19-cv-10760
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 20, 2019
Background
The plaintiffs filed this civil action without lawyers. They did not pay the required $400 in court fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. The opinion states that Flores was the only plaintiff who had submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Order
The court ordered that, within 30 days, the plaintiffs must either pay the $400 in fees or submit the required applications. Specifically, Weaver, Naseva, Concepción, and Halasa each had to complete, sign, and submit a separate application. Each application had to identify docket number 19-CV-10760 (CM). If the court grants an individual plaintiff’s application, that plaintiff may proceed without paying the fees in advance.
The Clerk of Court was directed to assign the matter to Judge McMahon’s docket, mail a copy of the order to each individual plaintiff, and record service on the docket. The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that the action would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if the plaintiffs complied, but that it would dismiss an individual plaintiff’s claims if that plaintiff failed to comply within the allowed time.
Disposition and appeal
This was a procedural order about payment of filing fees and applications to proceed without prepaying fees; it did not decide the underlying claims. Judge Colleen McMahon also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.