Finnegan v. USPS
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00548
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Finnegan v. USPS, Judge Swain ordered payment of fees or a corrected fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Sean Matthew Finnegan, who must either pay the required fees or submit an amended application to proceed without prepaying them.
What happened
In Finnegan v. USPS, Sean Matthew Finnegan filed the case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying court fees upfront.
The court said his application did not provide enough information about his assets, debts, and other financial obligations to show that he could not afford the required $402 in fees.
Judge Laura Swain ordered Finnegan to pay the fees or submit a corrected application within 30 days; the court said the case would be dismissed if he did neither, and no summons would issue at that time.
The detailed version
- Finnegan v. USPS · No. 1:22-cv-00548
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 26, 2022
Background
Sean Matthew Finnegan brought the action without a lawyer. To proceed with a civil case, he had to pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying those fees.
Finnegan submitted that application. He reported no income during the previous 12 months and no cash or money in checking or savings accounts. But he did not answer questions about whether he owned assets, the value of any assets, whether he had debts or other financial obligations, or the amounts involved.
Court’s Action
The court said it could not determine from the application whether Finnegan was unable to afford the fees. It ordered him, within 30 days of the order, either to pay $402 or submit an amended application. The amended application had to include facts addressing the missing information and identify docket number 22-CV-0548 (LTS). If the court granted the amended application, Finnegan could proceed without prepaying fees.
The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that the case would be processed through the Clerk’s Office if Finnegan complied and would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.