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S.D.N.Y.Procedural orderFiled June 25, 2020

Graves v. The State of New York

Judge
Colleen McMahon
Docket
1:20-cv-01489
Court
U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
Pages
1
Civil Procedure
In one sentence

Graves v. State of New York: Judge McMahon dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Graves neither paid the filing fee nor submitted prisoner authorization.

Who this affects

Donald Graves, whose complaint was dismissed without prejudice, and the named defendants in the action.

What happened

In Donald Graves v. State of New York, the court had ordered Graves to submit a completed prisoner authorization or pay the required filing fees within 30 days.

The order warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal. Graves did neither.

Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the complaint without prejudice and denied fee-free status for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
Graves v. The State of New York · No. 1:20-cv-01489
Judge
Colleen McMahon
Date
June 25, 2020

Background

The court had previously ordered Donald Graves to submit a completed prisoner authorization or pay the $400 filing fee required to bring a civil action. The order gave him 30 days and warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.

Failure to Comply

Graves did not submit the prisoner authorization and did not pay the filing fee. The opinion does not address the underlying allegations or legal claims in the complaint.

Ruling

The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Graves permission to appeal without paying the required fees. The Clerk was directed to mail Graves a copy of the order and record service on the docket.

The authoritative version

Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

Open opinion PDF →
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