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S.D.N.Y.Procedural orderFiled July 11, 2023

Nowak v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Judge
Laura Swain
Docket
1:23-cv-05898
Court
U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
Pages
4
Civil ProcedurePro Se
In one sentence

In Nowak v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, Judge Swain ordered pro se plaintiff Martin Nowak to pay fees or submit an IFP application within 30 days.

Who this affects

Martin Nowak must either pay the $402 in fees or submit an IFP application within 30 days; the action will be dismissed if he does not comply.

What happened

In Nowak v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Martin Nowak filed a civil action without a lawyer but did not pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without paying them upfront.

The court explained that the required fees total $402: a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. It gave Nowak 30 days to pay or submit the application. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims.

Judge Swain ordered Nowak to meet one of those requirements before the case could be processed. No summons would issue at that time, and the action would be dismissed if he did not comply. The court also denied fee-free status for any appeal from the order.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
Nowak v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. · No. 1:23-cv-05898
Judge
Laura Swain
Date
July 11, 2023

Background

Martin Nowak brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.

Order

The court stated that proceeding with a civil action requires either payment of $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee plus a $52 administrative fee—or submission of a signed IFP application under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court directed Nowak, within 30 days of the order, to pay the fees or submit the attached IFP application. If the court grants the application, Nowak may proceed without prepaying the fees.

No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if Nowak 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. The opinion does not address the merits or describe the claims against JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Appeal-related ruling

The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order was signed by Laura Taylor Swain, Chief United States District Judge.

The authoritative version

Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

Open opinion PDF →
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