Hamdan v. The United Nations Organization Headquarters
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-08746
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Hamdan v. The United Nations Organization Headquarters, Judge Swain ordered the plaintiffs to pay filing fees or submit fee-waiver applications.
The plaintiffs, Mostafa Fehmi Hamdan and Raymond Fouad Azar, were required to pay $402 in fees or each submit a separate signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. The court also denied fee-waiver status for an appeal from this order.
What happened
Mostafa Fehmi Hamdan and Raymond Fouad Azar sued The United Nations Organization Headquarters and others without lawyers, but they did not pay the required fees or submit applications to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave each plaintiff 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or complete, sign, and submit a separate application to proceed without prepaying fees. No summons would issue at that time, and the court said the action would be dismissed if they did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. The order did not address the merits of the lawsuit.
The detailed version
- Hamdan v. The United Nations Organization Headquarters · No. 1:22-cv-08746
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 18, 2022
Order and Background
Mostafa Fehmi Hamdan and Raymond Fouad Azar brought the action without lawyers. They submitted their complaint without paying the required filing fees and without submitting applications to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying court fees.
Required Filing Options
The court stated that proceeding with a civil action required payment of $402: a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. Within 30 days of the order, each plaintiff had to either pay the total fees or complete, sign, and submit a separate IFP application. If the court granted the applications, the plaintiffs would be allowed to proceed without prepaying the fees.
The court directed that the applications identify docket number 22-CV-8746 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if the plaintiffs complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if they failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. The court therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. This order addressed filing fees and appeal status; 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.