Lewis v. Dell - India
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-07571
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Regina Lewis v. Dell, Judge Swain denied fee-free filing, dismissed the case without prejudice, and denied fee-free appeal status.
Regina Lewis’s case was dismissed without prejudice, and she was denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee in this case or on appeal. Dell and Jason Mays were the named defendants in the dismissed action.
What happened
Regina Lewis v. Dell involved Lewis’s claim that Dell remotely accessed and damaged her computer; she sought a $1,500 refund. She filed the case without a lawyer and relied on the court’s authority over disputes between citizens of different states.
Lewis asked to proceed without paying the filing fee and separately asked permission to file the case. She argued that her claim that Dell hacked her computer had not previously been decided on its merits. The court noted her history of filing frivolous and non-meritorious cases.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied Lewis permission to proceed without paying the filing fee because the case continued that pattern, and the court dismissed the action without prejudice. The court also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Lewis v. Dell - India · No. 1:22-cv-07571
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 6, 2022
Background
Regina Lewis filed this case without a lawyer against Dell and Jason Mays, identified in the caption as a deputy director. She invoked the court’s authority over disputes between citizens of different states. Lewis alleged that “Dell is constantly in [her] computer remotely and ruined it” and requested a “$1500 refund.”
The order states that Lewis had previously been barred from filing new civil actions without paying the filing fee unless she first obtained the court’s permission, because of her continued filing of frivolous and non-meritorious actions. The order also notes that she was subject to other filing restrictions from earlier proceedings.
Requests Before the Court
Lewis asked to proceed without paying the filing fee. She also asked the court for permission to file this action, arguing that her claims that Dell had hacked her computer had never been raised and decided on their merits by a federal court.
Ruling
The court denied Lewis permission to proceed without paying the filing fee because it concluded that this case did not represent a departure from her pattern of frivolous and non-meritorious litigation. The court therefore dismissed the action without prejudice. It directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment and mail the order to Lewis.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Lewis permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for an appeal. The order did not decide whether Dell accessed Lewis’s computer or whether she was entitled to a refund.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.