Knight v. New York City
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:22-cv-03215
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Knight v. New York City, Judge Swain ordered Cavalier D. Knight to pay fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
Cavalier D. Knight, who must either pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment within 30 days.
What happened
In Knight v. New York City, Cavalier D. Knight filed a civil action without a lawyer but did not pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without paying them upfront.
The court ordered Knight, within 30 days, to either pay $402 or submit the required application. The court also said that no summons would issue yet and that the case would be processed if Knight complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying appeal fees. This order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Knight v. New York City · No. 1:22-cv-03215
- Valerie Caproni
- Apr. 28, 2022
Background
Cavalier D. Knight brought this civil action without a lawyer. The complaint was submitted without the required filing fees and without an application to proceed without prepaying those fees.
Order
The court explained that a civil action requires payment of $402: a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. Instead of paying, a plaintiff may request authorization to proceed without prepayment by submitting a signed application under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1).
The court ordered Knight, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the attached application. If Knight submitted the application and the court granted it, Knight would be permitted to proceed without prepaying the fees. No summons would issue at that time. If Knight complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if Knight did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal-related ruling
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 proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
What the order did not decide
The order addressed only the filing-fee or fee-waiver requirement. It did not decide the merits of Knight’s claims against New York City or the other defendants.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.