Gerard v. 1199 National Benefit Funds
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-07950
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Gerard v. 1199 National Benefit Funds, Chief Judge Swain ordered payment of fees or a complete amended fee-waiver application.
Ted Gerard, whose lawsuit could proceed only after he paid the required fees or submitted a complete amended application to proceed without prepaying them.
What happened
In Gerard v. 1199 National Benefit Funds, Ted Gerard filed a lawsuit without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying court fees upfront. His application said he was unemployed and had no wages, but it left out several financial details.
The court said Gerard had not provided the date or monthly amount of his last employment, his bank-account balances, whether anyone depended on him financially, or clear information about his expenses and how they were paid. Because of those omissions, the court could not determine whether he was unable to pay the fees.
Chief Judge Swain ordered Gerard, within 30 days, either to pay $402 or submit a complete, signed amended application to proceed without prepaying fees. No summonses would issue yet, and the court said it would dismiss the action if he did not comply; it also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Gerard v. 1199 National Benefit Funds · No. 1:23-cv-07950
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 14, 2023
Background
Ted Gerard brought this action without a lawyer. To begin a civil action in the court, he had to either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a completed and signed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an in forma pauperis (IFP) application.
Gerard's IFP application stated that he was unemployed and currently received no pay or wages. It also stated that he received no government benefits or other income, that his spouse paid his expenses, that he had no monthly expenses, that he had no money in bank accounts, that he owned no other assets, and that he owed $10,000 in credit-card debt. The court found that the application did not answer all relevant questions. In particular, Gerard did not provide the last date of his employment, his monthly earnings from that employment, the amount of money in his bank accounts, or whether anyone depended on him financially. The court also found it unclear whether he had expenses and, if so, how they were being paid.
Order
The court ordered Gerard, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $402 in fees or to fully complete, sign, and submit an amended IFP application. The amended application had to use docket number 1:23-CV-7950 (LTS) and provide facts showing that he could not pay the fees. The court stated that, if it granted the amended application, Gerard could proceed without prepaying fees. It also warned that the law requires dismissal if a person's allegation of poverty is untrue.
No summonses would issue at that time. If Gerard complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office's procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the court would dismiss the action. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
Judge
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued and signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.