Mikanda v. New York City
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-08780
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Mikanda v. New York City, Judge Swain required payment or an IFP application and denied summons requests without prejudice.
Neyembo Mikanda, who was required to pay the filing fees or submit an IFP application and whose summons requests were denied without prejudice. New York City and the State of New York were named as defendants, but the order did not decide the claims against them.
What happened
In Mikanda v. New York City, Neyembo Mikanda filed a civil action against New York City and the State of New York without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Mikanda 30 days to pay $402 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court also said no summons would issue at that time and denied Mikanda’s summons requests without prejudice, meaning they could be renewed later. If Mikanda did not comply, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not address the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Mikanda v. New York City · No. 1:23-cv-08780
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 10, 2023
Background
Neyembo Mikanda brought this civil action against New York City and the State of New York. The opinion states that Mikanda was representing himself. He submitted a complaint without paying the required filing fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees. Mikanda included a statement that the application was “inapplicable to him.”
Fees and application
The court explained that a civil plaintiff must either pay $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application. The court ordered Mikanda, within 30 days of the order, to do one of those two things. If the court grants an IFP application, the plaintiff may proceed without prepaying the fees.
Summons requests and appeal
The court ordered that no summons issue at that time. It denied Mikanda’s requests for issuance of summonses without prejudice to renewal at a later date. The court stated that, if Mikanda complied with the order, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that any 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 merits of Mikanda’s claims against either defendant.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.