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S.D.N.Y.Procedural orderFiled Nov. 17, 2020

Thompson v. New York State Office of Victim Services

Judge
Colleen McMahon
Docket
1:20-cv-08598
Court
U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
Pages
1
Civil Procedure
In one sentence

In Thompson v. New York State Office of Victim Services, Judge McMahon dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Thompson neither paid the filing fee nor sought fee waiver.

Who this affects

Mario Thompson’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice because he did not submit the required fee-waiver application or pay the $400 filing fee. The court also denied him permission to appeal without paying the appellate fee.

What happened

In Thompson v. New York State Office of Victim Services, the court had ordered Mario Thompson to submit an application to waive the filing fee or pay the required $400 to bring his civil case.

Thompson did neither within the required thirty days, so the court dismissed his complaint without prejudice. This ruling did not decide the underlying claims.

Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Thompson permission to appeal without paying the fee.

The detailed version

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

Case
Thompson v. New York State Office of Victim Services · No. 1:20-cv-08598
Judge
Colleen McMahon
Date
Nov. 17, 2020

Background

The court had previously ordered Mario Thompson to either submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee or pay the $400 required to file a civil action. The order gave him thirty days and warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal.

Ruling

Thompson did not submit the application or pay the fee. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal did not bar a later filing based solely on this dismissal.

The court also directed the clerk to mail Thompson a copy of the order and record service on the docket. It certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Thompson permission to appeal without paying the appellate filing fee. The order did not address the merits of Thompson’s claims.

The authoritative version

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

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