Schmitt v. Blinken
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-01892
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Schmitt v. Blinken, Judge Swain ordered pro se plaintiff John Howard Schmitt, Jr. to pay fees or submit an IFP application within 30 days.
John Howard Schmitt, Jr. must either pay the required fees or submit a signed IFP application within 30 days for the action to proceed. The defendants were not served with a summons at this stage.
What happened
In Schmitt v. Blinken, John Howard Schmitt, Jr. filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Schmitt 30 days to pay $402 or submit a signed application explaining why he cannot pay. The court said no summons would issue yet and that the case would be processed if he complied.
Judge Swain ordered the payment or application and stated that failing to comply would lead to dismissal of the action. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Schmitt v. Blinken · No. 1:23-cv-01892
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 29, 2023
Background
John Howard Schmitt, Jr. brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted his complaint without paying the required filing and administrative fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Order
The court ordered Schmitt, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay $402 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee, or submit the attached signed IFP application. If the court grants the application, Schmitt may proceed without paying the fees in advance.
No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if Schmitt complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Disposition
The court certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain did not decide the underlying claims in this order.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.