Wells v. John/Jane Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-01225
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Wells v. John/Jane Doe, Judge Swain dismissed the case without prejudice because Wells neither paid the filing fee nor completed required forms.
Carl D. Wells’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice; the order names John/Jane Doe as the defendants but does not decide the underlying claims against them.
What happened
In Wells v. John/Jane Doe, Carl D. Wells filed a civil case against John/Jane Doe without paying the filing fee or submitting the required request to proceed without paying it and prisoner authorization. The court had ordered him to take one of those steps after he did not show that he faced an immediate risk of serious physical injury.
Wells responded by alleging serious medical problems requiring immediate treatment, but he still did not submit the required forms or pay the $402 filing fee. The order does not decide whether his medical allegations or underlying claims were valid.
Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Wells did not comply with the court’s orders. The court also denied permission to appeal without paying fees and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Wells v. John/Jane Doe · No. 1:23-cv-01225
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 12, 2023
Background
Carl D. Wells brought this civil action without a lawyer. The court stated that Wells was barred from filing a new action without paying the filing fee unless he showed that he was in imminent danger of serious physical injury. The court had previously ordered him either to make that showing or pay the $402 filing fee.
Wells submitted a declaration alleging serious medical issues requiring immediate medical treatment. He did not, however, pay the filing fee or submit a completed application to proceed without paying the fee and the required prisoner authorization. The court then ordered him to submit those documents or pay the fee, warning that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Ruling
Wells did neither. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The dismissal was based on his failure to satisfy the filing requirements, not on a decision about the merits of his medical-treatment allegations or any other underlying claim.
The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees. It directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.