Bey v. Katz
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-06994
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bey v. Katz, Judge Swain ordered E’Jai Bey to pay fees or amend his incomplete application to proceed without prepayment.
E’Jai Bey and the further processing of his case; the order requires Bey to pay the fees or submit a complete amended fee-waiver application before the case proceeds.
What happened
In Bey v. Katz, E’Jai Bey filed the case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying filing fees in advance.
The application did not fully answer questions about Bey’s current finances, including his employment, income, bank funds, and how he pays expenses. The court therefore could not decide whether he qualified to proceed without prepaying fees.
Judge Swain ordered Bey, within 30 days, either to pay $402 or submit an amended application with complete financial information. No summons will issue yet, and the case will be dismissed if he does not comply; the court also denied fee-free status for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Bey v. Katz · No. 1:22-cv-06994
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 30, 2022
Background
E’Jai Bey brought the action without a lawyer and submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without prepaying court fees. The required fees total $402: a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee.
Bey’s application stated that his gross monthly wages, take-home pay, and bank funds were $0.00 and that he had received no income from listed sources during the previous 12 months. But he did not answer the question asking for his employer’s name and address, if employed, and answered several other questions only with “I.F.P.” The court found that the application did not provide enough information about Bey’s income or how he pays his expenses.
Order
The court did not rule on the merits of the underlying action or decide whether Bey could proceed without prepaying fees. Instead, it ordered Bey to do one of two things within 30 days: pay the $402 in fees or submit an amended application answering all questions based on his current financial situation and providing facts showing that he cannot pay the fees.
No summons will issue at this time. If Bey complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.