Zubair v. ConEdison Company of NY
- Louis Stanton
- 1:20-cv-01313
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Zubair v. ConEdison Company of NY, Judge McMahon ordered payment or an amended fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Ahmed Husain Zubair and the pending civil action against Con Edison Company of NY and the other named defendants. The order requires Zubair to pay the filing fees or submit a complete amended fee-waiver application within 30 days, and it states that the action will be dismissed if he does not comply.
What happened
Ahmed Husain Zubair, representing himself, asked to start his lawsuit without paying court fees upfront. The court reviewed his application and found that it did not provide enough information to support that request.
Zubair reported employment earning $65 per hour, $1,500 in a bank account, ownership of stocks, a car, and a house, and financial support for several people. He did not provide the values of those assets or the amounts of some expenses and contributions. The court also considered money awarded to him in an earlier case.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered Zubair, within 30 days, either to pay the required $400 in fees or submit a complete amended application. The court stated that no summons would issue yet and that the case would be dismissed if he did not comply; it also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Zubair v. ConEdison Company of NY · No. 1:20-cv-01313
- Louis Stanton
- Feb. 18, 2020
Background
Ahmed Husain Zubair brought this civil action without a lawyer and asked to proceed without prepaying filing fees. The court explained that a civil action requires either payment of $400— consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or an application to proceed without prepayment under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915.
Why the Court Required More Information
Zubair’s application stated that he was employed and earned $65 per hour. He also reported $1,500 in a bank account and ownership of stocks, a car, and a house, but did not state the value of those assets. He listed monthly car-loan payments of $575 and an unspecified amount that appeared to be mortgage payments. He also stated that he financially supported multiple people without identifying the amount contributed to each person.
The court additionally considered a judgment from an earlier related case that awarded Zubair $115,175.67, including unpaid overtime wages and related damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs. The opinion also states that a later judgment awarded $45,000 in additional attorneys’ fees and costs.
Order
The court stated that it could not grant Zubair’s request to proceed without prepaying fees at that time. It ordered him, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $400 required to commence the action or to submit the attached amended application. The amended application had to fully answer the questions about the value of his stocks, car, house, and other assets; his debts; and the amounts he contributed to each person he supported. It had to identify docket number 1:20-CV-1313 (CM).
The court stated that, if the amended application showed that Zubair had funds to pay the fees, he could be required to pay them. The Clerk was directed to mail the order to Zubair and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. If Zubair complied, the action would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the court would dismiss the action. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for such an appeal.
Disposition
This was an administrative and threshold order about payment of filing fees, not a decision on the underlying claims. The court did not grant the fee-waiver request at that time and ordered payment or a complete amended application within 30 days.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.