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S.D.N.Y.Procedural orderFiled Aug. 25, 2023

Sinja v. Friederich

Judge
Laura Swain
Docket
1:23-cv-05948
Court
U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
Pages
1
Civil Procedure
In one sentence

In Sinja v. Friederich, Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Wesley Sinja neither paid the filing fee nor submitted a fee-waiver application.

Who this affects

Wesley Sinja’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice because he did not submit the required fee-waiver application or pay the filing fee. The court also denied permission to appeal without paying fees.

What happened

In Sinja v. Friederich, the court ordered Wesley Sinja to submit an application to proceed without paying filing fees or pay the $402 filing fee within 30 days.

Sinja did neither. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning it was not permanently barred from being filed again.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.

The detailed version

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

Case
Sinja v. Friederich · No. 1:23-cv-05948
Judge
Laura Swain
Date
Aug. 25, 2023

Background

The court had previously directed Wesley Sinja, within 30 days, either to submit an application to proceed without paying filing fees—known as an application to proceed in forma pauperis—or to pay the $402 required fee for filing a civil action. The court warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal.

Court’s Ruling

Sinja did not submit the application or pay the fee. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice. The opinion does not address the underlying claims against Nkosi B. Friederich or Barack Muscim Obama.

The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying appellate fees. The Clerk of Court was directed to enter judgment. The order was signed by Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.

The authoritative version

Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

Open opinion PDF →
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