Holman v. Family Court
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:17-cv-07141
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Holman v. Family Court, Judge McMahon denied as moot Holman’s request for more time to appeal after the Second Circuit dismissed her appeal.
Serrice S. Holman, whose motion for an extension of time to appeal was denied as moot and whose permission to appeal without paying fees was denied.
What happened
In Holman v. Family Court, the court had dismissed Serrice S. Holman’s complaint without prejudice in 2017 after she did not pay the filing fee or submit a completed request to proceed without paying it. The court later denied her motion to reopen the case.
About six and one-half years later, Holman filed a notice of appeal and asked for more time to appeal. The Second Circuit dismissed her appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
Because the appeal had already been dismissed, Judge McMahon denied Holman’s motion for more time to appeal as moot. The court also denied her permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Holman v. Family Court · No. 1:17-cv-07141
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 19, 2022
Background
In December 2017, the court dismissed Serrice S. Holman’s complaint without prejudice because she did not comply with an order requiring her either to pay the $400 filing fee or to submit a completed and signed request to proceed without paying the fee. Holman later moved to reopen the case, but the court denied that motion in February 2018.
Appeal and Motion
In July 2022, approximately six and one-half years later, Holman filed a notice of appeal and moved for an extension of time to appeal. The Second Circuit later dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction in a mandate issued on November 16, 2022.
Ruling
Because the Second Circuit had already decided the appeal, the court ruled that Holman’s motion for an extension of time to appeal was moot, meaning that there was no longer a live issue for the court to decide. Judge McMahon therefore denied the motion as moot. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from this 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.