Bey v. Surrogate's Court New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-03797
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bey v. Surrogate's Court New York, Judge Swain ordered payment or an application to proceed without fees within 30 days.
Cooleridge Bell Bey must either pay $402 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. The action may be dismissed if Bey does not comply, and no summons will issue yet.
What happened
In Bey v. Surrogate's Court New York, Cooleridge Bell Bey filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without paying them in advance. Bey was representing themself.
The court gave Bey 30 days to pay $402 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying the fees. The court said no summons would be issued yet and warned that the action would be dismissed if Bey did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Bey v. Surrogate's Court New York · No. 1:21-cv-03797
- Laura Swain
- May 12, 2021
Background
Cooleridge Bell Bey filed this civil action without a lawyer. The complaint was submitted without the required filing and administrative fees and without an application to proceed without prepaying those fees.
Order
The court explained that beginning a civil action required either paying $402—$350 for the filing fee and $52 for the administrative fee—or submitting a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1915. The court ordered Bey to do one of those things within 30 days of the order. If the court granted the application, Bey could proceed without prepaying the fees.
The clerk was directed to mail the order to Bey and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that the action would be processed under the clerk's procedures if Bey complied, but that the action would be dismissed if Bey did not comply within the allowed time.
Appeal ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain 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 addressed payment or fee-waiver requirements and did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.