Petroceli v. U.S. Department of Justice
- Denise Cote
- 1:21-cv-03675
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Petroceli v. U.S. Department of Justice, Judge Swain ordered payment of fees or a fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Domingos Lugao Petroceli, who must either pay the required fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying them within 30 days; the case may be dismissed if he does not comply.
What happened
In Petroceli v. U.S. Department of Justice, the plaintiff filed a civil case without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without paying them in advance.
The court ordered the plaintiff, within 30 days, to pay $402 or submit a signed application for a fee waiver. The court said no summons would issue yet and warned that the case would be dismissed if the plaintiff did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Petroceli v. U.S. Department of Justice · No. 1:21-cv-03675
- Denise Cote
- May 12, 2021
Background
Domingos Lugao Petroceli brought the action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required filing and administrative fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court explained 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 application to proceed without prepayment of fees. The court ordered Petroceli to do one of those things within 30 days and instructed him to identify the case docket number on any application.
The court stated that, if it granted the application, Petroceli could proceed without paying the fees in advance. The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to him and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that the action would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Petroceli complied, but that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time.
Appeal
The court certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
Disposition
The court issued an order directing payment of fees or submission of an application to proceed without prepayment of fees. It did not decide the underlying claims in the complaint.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.