Craft v. New York State Supreme Court
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-10266
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Craft v. New York State Supreme Court, Judge Swain ordered payment or a fee-waiver application before the case could proceed.
Christopher D. Craft, Sr. was required to pay the case fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying them within 30 days. The case would be dismissed if he did not comply, and the court denied fee-waiver status for an appeal.
What happened
In Craft v. New York State Supreme Court, Christopher D. Craft, Sr. filed a civil case without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court ordered Craft to pay $402 or submit a signed fee-waiver application within 30 days. No summons would issue at that time, and the court said the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not address the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Craft v. New York State Supreme Court · No. 1:22-cv-10266
- Laura Swain
- Dec. 6, 2022
Background
Christopher D. Craft, Sr. brought this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims. Craft submitted the complaint without paying the required filing and administrative fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court stated that a person starting a civil action must either pay $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court gave Craft 30 days from the date of the order to do one of those two things. If he submitted the application, it had to identify docket number 22-CV-10266 (LTS). The court explained that, if it granted the application, Craft could proceed without paying the fees in advance.
The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Craft complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures, and that, if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal-related ruling and effect
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 and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order addressed filing requirements and appeal-related fee status; it did not decide the merits of Craft’s claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.