Onatolu v. Medicaid
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-07519
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Onatolu v. Medicaid, Chief Judge McMahon dismissed the action without prejudice because Onatolu did not obtain required permission to file it without paying fees.
Adekunle A. Onatolu: the action was dismissed without prejudice, and permission to appeal without paying the filing fee was denied.
What happened
In Onatolu v. Medicaid, Adekunle A. Onatolu filed the case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying the filing fee. The court had previously barred him from filing new cases without paying the fee unless he first obtained the court’s permission.
Onatolu had not requested that permission before filing this case. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice for failing to follow the earlier order.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Onatolu permission to appeal without paying the filing fee. The court did not address the documents Onatolu attached about appealing, because no order in this case existed when he filed them.
The detailed version
- Onatolu v. Medicaid · No. 1:20-cv-07519
- Colleen McMahon
- Sept. 15, 2020
Background
Adekunle A. Onatolu filed this action without a lawyer and sought permission to proceed without paying the filing fee. The opinion states that, on July 9, 2015, the court barred Onatolu from filing any new action without paying the fee unless he first obtained leave, meaning permission, from the court.
Onatolu did not seek that permission before filing this case. The opinion states that he attached a notice of appeal, a motion to extend the time to file a notice of appeal, and a motion to proceed without paying the filing fee on appeal. Because there was no order in this action to appeal when he filed the complaint, the court did not address those documents.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1651 because Onatolu failed to comply with the July 9, 2015 order. The opinion does not decide the underlying claims.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for purposes of an appeal. The order was signed by Chief United States District Judge Colleen McMahon.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.