Gueye v. Jeffrey Epstein's Estates
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:21-cv-00163
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Gueye v. Jeffrey Esptein’s Estates, Judge McMahon ordered the pro se plaintiff to pay fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
The order affects Amar Gueye, who must either pay $400 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. If he does neither, the action will be dismissed.
What happened
In Gueye v. Jeffrey Esptein’s Estates, Amar Gueye filed a civil action without a lawyer but did not submit the required filing fees or an application to proceed without paying them in advance.
The court ordered Gueye, within 30 days, to pay $400 or submit a signed application requesting permission to proceed without prepaying fees. No summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk’s Office to send Gueye the order. The case would be processed if he complied, but the action would be dismissed if he did not; the court also denied fee-free status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Gueye v. Jeffrey Epstein's Estates · No. 1:21-cv-00163
- Colleen McMahon
- Jan. 20, 2021
Background
Amar Gueye brought this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he submitted a complaint but did not pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without prepaying them.
Order
Under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915, a plaintiff must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit a signed application requesting permission to proceed without prepayment of fees. The court gave Gueye 30 days from the date of the order to do one of those two things. If he submitted the application, it had to identify docket number 21-CV-0163.
The court stated that, if it granted the application, Gueye could proceed without prepaying fees. The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. If Gueye complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if he failed to comply within the allotted time, the action would be dismissed.
Ruling and Effect
Chief United States District Judge Colleen McMahon directed payment of the fee or submission of the application. She also certified 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 did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.