Garnes v. Pritchard Industries, Inc.
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:20-cv-03843
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Garnes v. Pritchard Industries, Judge McMahon ordered payment or an application to waive fees within 30 days.
Mark Garnes, who was required to pay the filing fees or submit an application to proceed without prepaying them; the case could be dismissed without prejudice if he did not comply.
What happened
In Garnes v. Pritchard Industries, Inc., Mark Garnes brought an employment-discrimination action without a lawyer. The court treated his filing as a complaint and opened this case.
The court ordered Garnes, within 30 days, either to pay $400 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying the fees upfront. No summons would issue at that time, and the case would be dismissed without prejudice if he did not comply.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that any appeal from this order could not proceed without paying the appeal fees because it would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the employment-discrimination claims.
The detailed version
- Garnes v. Pritchard Industries, Inc. · No. 1:20-cv-03843
- Paul Engelmayer
- May 19, 2020
Background
Mark Garnes filed the action pro se, meaning without a lawyer. His submission was styled as a request for more time to file an employment-discrimination action. The court construed it as a complaint and opened it as a new case.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a plaintiff must either pay $400 in filing and administrative fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. Garnes had done neither. The court ordered him to take one of those two steps within 30 days and to identify the application with docket number 20-CV-3843 (CM).
The order stated that, if the court granted the fee-waiver application, Garnes could proceed without prepaying fees. No summons would issue at that time. If Garnes did not comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed without prejudice. The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket.
Appeal and Disposition
Judge Colleen McMahon certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order addressed filing-fee requirements and did not resolve the merits of Garnes’s employment-discrimination claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.