Epperson v. United States
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:21-cv-01849
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Epperson v. United States, Chief Judge McMahon ordered payment of fees or a fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Chris Jonathon Epperson, who was required to pay $402 or submit a signed fee-waiver application within 30 days to continue the action; the order also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from it.
What happened
In Epperson v. United States, Chris Jonathon Epperson filed a civil action without a lawyer but did not pay the required fees or submit an application to waive them.
The court ordered Epperson to pay $402 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. No summons would issue at that time, and the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from the order, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Epperson v. United States · No. 1:21-cv-01849
- Colleen McMahon
- Mar. 16, 2021
Background
Chris Jonathon Epperson filed this civil action without a lawyer against the United States and Geoffrey S. Binney. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting an application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying court fees.
Order
The court stated that proceeding with a civil action required either payment of $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submission of a signed IFP application. The court gave Epperson 30 days from the date of the order to do one of those things. If the court granted the application, he could proceed without prepaying the fees.
The clerk was directed to mail the order to Epperson and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. If Epperson complied, the clerk's office would process the case under its procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and disposition
Judge Colleen McMahon certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. This order addressed payment of fees and the fee-waiver application; it did not decide the merits of Epperson's claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.