Sellers v. United States of America
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-05898
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Sellers v. United States, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Sellers neither paid filing fees nor submitted required forms.
Douglas Sellers’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice because he did not pay the required filing fees or submit the required documents. The United States of America was named as the defendant.
What happened
In Sellers v. United States of America, the court had ordered Douglas Sellers to submit a completed application to proceed without paying filing fees and a required prisoner authorization, or to pay the court’s $402 filing fees within 30 days. The order warned that failing to do so would lead to dismissal.
Sellers did not submit the required documents or pay the fees. The opinion does not address the underlying claims in his complaint.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice to Sellers filing a new action. She also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed that judgment be entered.
The detailed version
- Sellers v. United States of America · No. 1:22-cv-05898
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 6, 2022
Background
By an order dated July 12, 2022, the court directed Douglas Sellers to do one of two things within 30 days: submit a completed application to proceed without paying filing fees, together with a required prisoner authorization, or pay the $402 in fees required to file a civil action. The court stated that failure to comply would result in dismissal of the complaint.
Court’s ruling
Sellers did not file the application and authorization, and he did not pay the filing fees. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice to Sellers’s refiling a new action, citing 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The dismissal was based on the filing-fee and document requirements; the opinion did not reach the underlying claims.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. As a result, permission to appeal without paying fees was denied. The court directed that judgment be entered.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.