Matthew v. Carbon
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-03265
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Izeh Matthew v. Carbon, Judge Swain ordered the pro se plaintiff to pay $402 or submit an IFP application within 30 days.
Izeh Matthew must either pay $402 or submit an IFP application within 30 days. No summons will issue while this requirement is pending, and the action will be dismissed if Matthew does not comply. The order also denies IFP status for an appeal from this order.
What happened
In Izeh Matthew v. Judge Anthony Carbon, et al., Izeh Matthew filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court explained that starting a civil action required either paying $402 or submitting a signed application showing an inability to pay. The order gave Matthew 30 days to do one of those things, and no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Matthew to pay the fees or submit the application. She stated that the action would be dismissed if Matthew did not comply, and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees because any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Matthew v. Carbon · No. 1:23-cv-03265
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 24, 2023
Background
Izeh Matthew brought the action pro se, meaning without a lawyer. The complaint was submitted without the required filing fees and without an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Order
The court stated that proceeding with 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 directed Matthew, within 30 days of the order, to pay the fees or submit the attached application. The application was to identify docket number 23-CV-3265 (LTS). If the court granted the application, Matthew would be permitted to proceed without prepaying the fees.
No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Matthew complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office’s procedures. If Matthew failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Matthew to pay the fees or submit an IFP application. The court also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. This order did not decide the underlying claims described in the complaint.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.