Ceresa v. Rathjen
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-07070
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Ceresa v. Rathjen, Judge Swain required acceptable payment of filing fees and warned the action would be dismissed if payment was not made.
Robert L. Ceresa and the pending civil action; the Clerk of Court was directed to return Ceresa's personal check.
What happened
In Ceresa v. Rathjen, the court had previously denied Robert L. Ceresa permission to proceed without paying filing fees upfront and ordered him to pay $402.00. Ceresa sent a personal check, but the court said personal checks were not accepted.
The court ordered the Clerk of Court to return the check. It gave Ceresa 30 days to pay the $402.00 by certified check, money order, major credit card, or cash paid in person, using the required case number and payment information.
If Ceresa did not make an acceptable payment within 30 days, the action would be dismissed without prejudice to refiling. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from this order would not be considered to have been made in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Ceresa v. Rathjen · No. 1:22-cv-07070
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 13, 2022
Background
On September 13, 2022, the court denied Plaintiff Robert L. Ceresa permission to proceed without paying the filing fees upfront and ordered him to pay $402.00 within 30 days. On October 4, 2022, the court received Ceresa's personal check for that amount.
Payment ruling
The court determined that a personal check was not an acceptable form of payment and directed the Clerk of Court to return it. The court directed Ceresa to pay the $402.00 within 30 days using an acceptable method: certified check or money order payable to the Clerk of Court for the Southern District of New York, major credit card, or cash paid in person. A certified check or money order had to include case number 22-CV-7070 (LTS).
Disposition
The court directed the Clerk to return Ceresa's $402.00 personal check and directed Ceresa to submit the filing fees using an acceptable payment method. The court stated that if Ceresa failed to pay within 30 days of the order, the action would be dismissed without prejudice to refiling. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.