Carter v. Sewell
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-01139
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Carter v. Sewell, Chief Judge Swain ordered Carter to pay fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
Darryl C. Carter must either pay $402 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment within 30 days; the action may be dismissed if he does not comply.
What happened
In Carter v. Sewell, Darryl C. Carter filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them. The opinion states that Carter was representing himself.
The court required Carter, within 30 days, to pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit a signed application asking to proceed without prepayment. The court said no summons would issue at that time.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered these steps and stated that the action would be dismissed if Carter did not comply within the allowed period. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees for that appeal.
The detailed version
- Carter v. Sewell · No. 1:23-cv-01139
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 13, 2023
Background
Darryl C. Carter filed this civil action while representing himself. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without an application to proceed without prepayment of fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Order
The court explained that filing a civil action required either payment of $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submission of a signed IFP application. The court ordered Carter to do one of those things within 30 days of the order. If the court grants the IFP application, Carter may proceed without paying the fees in advance.
The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Carter complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures, but that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed period.
Appeal and disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants. This is a procedural order addressing filing fees and the request to proceed without prepayment.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.