Baly v. Certificate of Appeals Supreme Court of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-05812
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Baly v. Certificate of Appeals Supreme Court of New York, Judge Swain ordered a fee or corrected application, warning of dismissal without prejudice.
Rami Baly, who must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a corrected application within 30 days to avoid dismissal without prejudice; the respondent was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
Rami Baly filed a federal petition challenging his 2017 New York conviction, but he did not pay the required filing fee. He submitted an application to proceed without paying, but the application was for New York state courts rather than the federal court.
The court ordered Baly, within 30 days, either to pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed, corrected application labeled with the case number. The court said no response from the respondent was required yet and warned that the case would be dismissed without prejudice if Baly did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without paying the fee, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the substance of Baly’s challenge to his conviction.
The detailed version
- Baly v. Certificate of Appeals Supreme Court of New York · No. 1:22-cv-05812
- Laura Swain
- July 12, 2022
Background
Rami Baly, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, a legal request challenging the lawfulness of a conviction or detention. The opinion states that Baly challenges a March 2, 2017 conviction after a non-jury trial, for which he received a sentence of three years’ probation. The conviction was affirmed on direct appeal, and the New York Court of Appeals denied his application for permission to appeal. The court noted that it was unclear whether Baly intended to pursue the application in state or federal court.
Filing-fee order
Baly submitted the petition without the required $5 filing fee. He also submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning to proceed without paying the filing fee, but that application was captioned for New York state courts rather than the federal court. The court ordered Baly, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $5 fee or complete and submit the attached amended application. If he submits the amended application, it must be labeled with docket number 22-CV-5812 (LTS).
The court stated that no answer from the respondent was required at that time. It ordered that the action would be dismissed without prejudice if Baly failed to comply within the allowed time. The court did not rule on the merits of Baly’s challenge to his conviction. It also 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 paying the fee.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Baly to pay the filing fee or submit a corrected application and warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal without prejudice. The order was a filing and fee-related step, not a decision on the habeas petition’s underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.