Rowhani v. Mayorkas
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-10659
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Rowhani v. Mayorkas, Chief Judge Swain dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Rowhani neither paid filing fees nor submitted a fee-waiver application.
The dismissal affected Sayed Mosen Rowhani’s complaint; the opinion does not describe any separate effect on the defendants.
What happened
Rowhani v. Mayorkas concerned the plaintiff’s failure to comply with an order requiring him either to submit an application to proceed without paying filing fees or to pay the required filing fees.
The plaintiff did neither within the required thirty-day period. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning it was not permanently barred from being filed again.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. The clerk was directed to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Rowhani v. Mayorkas · No. 1:23-cv-10659
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 16, 2024
Background
By an order dated December 11, 2023, the court directed Sayed Mosen Rowhani, within thirty days, either to submit a completed application to proceed without paying filing fees or to pay the $405 required to file a civil action. The order warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal of the complaint.
Court’s Ruling
Rowhani did not submit the application or pay the fees. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. “Without prejudice” means the dismissal did not permanently bar refiling, although the opinion does not state any other conditions for refiling.
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. The court directed the clerk to enter judgment.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.