Hunte v. Rushmore Loan Management Services, LLC
- Kenneth Karas
- 7:22-cv-02169
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Hunte v. Rushmore, Judge Karas ordered the plaintiffs to pay filing fees or separately request permission to proceed without prepayment.
Esther Hunte and Jonathan Hunte were required either to pay the action’s $402 in fees or separately submit applications to proceed without prepaying fees. Their underlying claims were not addressed in this order.
What happened
Esther Hunte and Jonathan Hunte sued Rushmore Loan Management Services, LLC, without lawyers, but submitted their complaint without paying the required fees or filing applications to proceed without prepaying them. In Hunte v. Rushmore, the court addressed only those filing requirements.
The court gave each plaintiff 30 days to pay a total of $402 or submit a separate, completed, and signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. No summons would issue at that time. If a plaintiff did not comply, the court said it would dismiss that plaintiff’s claims.
Judge Karas ordered the plaintiffs to comply with one of those requirements and directed the Clerk’s Office to mail Esther Hunte a copy of the order. The court also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Hunte v. Rushmore Loan Management Services, LLC · No. 7:22-cv-02169
- Kenneth Karas
- Mar. 28, 2022
Background
Esther Hunte and Jonathan Hunte brought this action against Rushmore Loan Management Services, LLC, representing themselves. They submitted the complaint without paying the fees required to begin a civil action and without each submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Filing-fee requirement
The court stated that the plaintiffs had to pay $402 in total: a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. Alternatively, each plaintiff could complete, sign, and submit a separate IFP application under 28 U.S.C. § 1915. If the court granted Esther Hunte’s application, she would be allowed to proceed without prepaying the fees.
Order
The court ordered the plaintiffs, within 30 days of March 28, 2022, either to pay the total $402 or for each plaintiff to submit a separate completed and signed IFP application. The application had to identify docket number 22-CV-2169 (KMK). No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that if a plaintiff failed to comply within the allowed period, it would dismiss that plaintiff’s claims.
Judge Kenneth M. Karas certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The Clerk of Court was directed to mail a copy of the order to Esther Hunte and note service on the docket. The order did not address the underlying claims against Rushmore.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.