Frost v. Help USA
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-00725
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Frost v. Help USA, Chief Judge McMahon dismissed the action without prejudice because Frost lacked required filing permission.
Yvonne Frost, who filed the case without a lawyer and sought to proceed without paying the filing fee.
What happened
Yvonne Frost brought this case against Help USA and others while representing herself and seeking to file without paying court fees. The court had previously barred her from filing any new fee-free action unless she first obtained permission.
Frost did not seek that permission before filing this case. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice for violating the earlier order.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Frost permission to appeal without paying the filing fee.
The detailed version
- Frost v. Help USA · No. 1:20-cv-00725
- Colleen McMahon
- Feb. 3, 2020
Background
Yvonne Frost filed this new case while representing herself. She sought permission to proceed without paying the court’s filing fee. The opinion states that, in an earlier related proceeding, the court had barred Frost from filing any new action without paying the fee unless she first obtained the court’s permission to file.
Reason for dismissal
Frost did not request that permission before filing this action. The court dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1651 for failing to comply with the earlier order. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal itself does not bar a later filing, although the opinion states that Frost remained subject to the earlier permission requirement.
Appeal ruling
Chief United States District Judge Colleen McMahon certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. The court therefore denied Frost permission to appeal without paying the filing fee.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.