Grimsley v. Nike Corp.
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-10745
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Grimsley v. Nike Corp., Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice after Grimsley failed to pay filing fees or submit required forms.
Robert Grimsley’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice because he did not pay the filing fees or submit the required forms. His pending motions were terminated, and permission to appeal without prepaying fees was denied. The defendants were not required to litigate the complaint on the merits in this order.
What happened
In Grimsley v. Nike Corp., Robert Grimsley was ordered to submit forms requesting permission to proceed without paying the filing fee and authorizing deductions from a prisoner account, or to pay the required filing fees. The order warned that failing to comply would lead to dismissal.
Grimsley did neither. Instead, he filed several other documents and argued that he should not be treated as a prisoner because, he said, the defendants had kidnapped him. The court noted that he was incarcerated in Oregon and therefore qualified as a prisoner under the applicable law.
Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice for failing to follow the court’s order. The court also denied any request to reconsider the earlier order, terminated the pending motions, and denied permission to appeal without paying fees because the appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Grimsley v. Nike Corp. · No. 1:21-cv-10745
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 3, 2022
Background
Robert Grimsley sued Nike Corp. and other defendants. The opinion states that Grimsley was detained at Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon. In an order dated December 17, 2021, the court directed him either to submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying filing fees and a prisoner authorization, or to pay the $400 in filing fees required to bring a civil action. The court warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Grimsley did not submit the required application and authorization or pay the fees. Instead, he filed several other documents, including a request for relief from the earlier order, a declaration, a letter, a motion to correct the docket, and a civil cover sheet. In those filings, he asserted that the defendants had kidnapped him and that he therefore did not qualify as a prisoner.
Court’s Analysis
The court concluded that Grimsley qualified as a prisoner under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(h) because he was incarcerated. The court therefore treated his failure to submit the required forms or pay the filing fees as noncompliance with its December 17, 2021 order.
Disposition
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice for failure to comply with the court’s order. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal itself does not bar a later filing, although the opinion does not explain what requirements would apply to any later filing. To the extent Grimsley sought reconsideration of the December 17 order, the court denied that motion.
The court directed the Clerk of Court to terminate all outstanding motions and stated that no further documents would be accepted in the case except documents directed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.