Hurt v. U.S. Constitution
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-04392
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Judge Swain dismissed Hurt v. U.S. Constitution without prejudice because Hurt did not obtain required permission to proceed without paying fees.
Tyrone Hurt, who filed the action without a lawyer, was affected by the dismissal and the denial of permission to appeal without paying fees. The defendants were not required to litigate the underlying claims because the case was dismissed at this stage.
What happened
In Hurt v. U.S. Constitution, Tyrone Hurt filed the case without paying the required filing fees or formally asking to proceed without paying them. The court treated the unpaid fees as an implied request to proceed without payment.
A 2013 order had barred Hurt from filing any new case without paying fees unless he first obtained the court’s permission. Hurt did not seek that permission before filing this case.
Judge Swain dismissed the case without prejudice for violating the earlier order. She also denied Hurt permission to proceed without paying fees for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Hurt v. U.S. Constitution · No. 1:22-cv-04392
- Laura Swain
- June 10, 2022
Background
Tyrone Hurt brought this action without a lawyer. He had not paid the filing fees and had not submitted a formal request to proceed without paying them. The court therefore treated the unpaid fees as a request for permission to proceed without payment.
The court had previously ordered that Hurt could not file a new action without paying the filing fees unless he first obtained permission from the court. The opinion identifies that earlier matter as a prior related proceeding, No. 13-CV-5365 (S.D.N.Y.), decided October 11, 2013. Hurt did not seek the required permission before filing this case.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice because Hurt failed to comply with the earlier order. The opinion does not address the substance of Hurt’s claims against the named defendants.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Hurt permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on June 10, 2022.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.