Onatolu v. Food Stamps
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-07601
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Onatolu v. Food Stamps, Judge McMahon dismissed the case without prejudice because Onatolu filed without required permission under an earlier court order.
Adekunle A. Onatolu, whose action against Food Stamps was dismissed without prejudice and whose request to proceed without paying fees on appeal was denied.
What happened
In Onatolu v. Food Stamps, Adekunle A. Onatolu filed a new case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying filing fees. An earlier court order required him to get permission before filing any new case without paying fees, but he did not ask for that permission.
The court dismissed the action without prejudice because Onatolu did not comply with the earlier order. The court did not address the attached appeal-related documents because there was not yet an order in this case to appeal.
Judge Colleen McMahon also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Onatolu v. Food Stamps · No. 1:20-cv-07601
- Colleen McMahon
- Sept. 17, 2020
Background
An earlier order barred Adekunle A. Onatolu from filing any new civil action without paying filing fees unless he first obtained permission from the court. In this case, Onatolu filed a new action against Food Stamps, sought permission to proceed without paying filing fees, and did not first seek the required permission to file.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice for failure to comply with the earlier order. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal itself does not bar a later filing, although the opinion does not describe what steps would be required for any future filing.
Appeal-Related Documents
Onatolu attached a notice of appeal, a request for more time to file a notice of appeal, and a request to proceed without paying fees on appeal. The court did not address those documents because, when the complaint was filed, no order had yet been entered in this action from which to appeal.
The court 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 fees for the appeal.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.