Tshiamala v. Cohen
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-01642
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Tshiamala v. Cohen, Judge Swain ordered a pro se plaintiff to pay $402 or seek a fee waiver within 30 days.
Oumar Ngeleka Tshiamala, whose case could be dismissed if he did not pay the required fees or submit the required application within 30 days; Dr. Steven A. Cohen was named as the defendant.
What happened
In Tshiamala v. Cohen, Oumar Ngeleka Tshiamala filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Tshiamala 30 days to pay $402 or submit a signed application for permission to proceed without prepayment. No summons would issue at that time, and the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order could not proceed without payment of appeal fees because it would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Tshiamala v. Cohen · No. 1:22-cv-01642
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 1, 2022
Background
Oumar Ngeleka Tshiamala brought this civil action against Dr. Steven A. Cohen. The opinion states that Tshiamala was representing himself. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepayment of fees.
Order
The court explained that starting a civil action required either payment of $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees. Within 30 days of the order, Tshiamala had to take one of those steps. If he submitted an application, it had to include docket number 22-CV-1642.
No summons would issue at that time. If Tshiamala complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures. If he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Effect
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The Clerk was directed to mail Tshiamala a copy of the order and record service on the docket. This order addressed the filing-fee and fee-waiver requirements rather than the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.