Bowleg v. The State of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-06855
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Bowleg v. New York, Judge Swain ordered payment of fees or an IFP application within 30 days, warning noncompliance would lead to dismissal.
The order directly affects Harry Alphonso Bowleg by requiring him to pay the fees or submit an application to proceed without prepaying them within 30 days. The case would be dismissed if he failed to comply, and no summons would issue at that time.
What happened
Harry Alphonso Bowleg sued The State of New York, et al., but submitted the complaint without paying the required fees or providing an application to proceed without prepaying them.
Judge Swain ordered Bowleg, within 30 days, either to pay $402.00 in filing and administrative fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court said no summons would issue at that time and warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the claims’ merits.
The detailed version
- Bowleg v. The State of New York · No. 1:22-cv-06855
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 12, 2022
Background
Harry Alphonso Bowleg brought this action pro se, meaning without a lawyer, against The State of New York, et al. He submitted a complaint but did not pay the required fees and did not submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court explained that starting a civil action required either payment of $402.00—consisting of a $350.00 filing fee and a $52.00 administrative fee—or a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1915.
The court ordered Bowleg, within 30 days of the order, to do one of those two things. If he submitted the application and the court granted it, he could proceed without prepaying the fees. The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Bowleg failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and disposition
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order addressed filing fees and the fee-waiver application; it did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.