Kelde v. Jakobs
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-05946
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Kelde v. Jakobs, Judge Swain ordered Linda Kelde to pay fees or submit a complete fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Linda Kelde and the status of her civil action; the order requires her to pay the filing fees or submit an amended application before the case proceeds.
What happened
Kelde v. Jakobs concerns Linda Kelde’s request to proceed without paying the fees required to start a civil case. The court said her application left most questions unanswered and did not show that she could not pay.
The court gave Kelde 30 days to either pay $402 or submit an amended application answering every question and providing facts about her inability to pay. No summons will issue yet.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain said that failing to comply would result in dismissal without prejudice, and denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Kelde v. Jakobs · No. 1:23-cv-05946
- Laura Swain
- July 13, 2023
Background
Linda Kelde brought the action without a lawyer. To proceed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, she had to pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying those fees.
Kelde submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees, but the court stated that she had not answered most of the questions. As a result, the application did not establish that she was unable to pay the fees.
Order
The court ordered Kelde, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 in fees or submit an amended application. The amended application must respond to each question, provide facts showing that she cannot pay the fees, and identify docket number 23-CV-5946 (LTS). If the court grants the amended application, Kelde may proceed without prepaying fees.
No summons will issue at this time. If Kelde does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed without prejudice, meaning the order does not bar a later filing. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.