Shabazz v. BET Networks
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-09923
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Shabazz v. BET Networks was dismissed without prejudice for failure to request a fee waiver or pay filing fees, Judge Swain ruled.
Danny Amen Valentine Shabazz’s complaint against BET Networks and the other named defendants was dismissed without prejudice because he did not submit the required fee-waiver application or pay the filing fee. Any appeal would not receive fee-waiver status under this order.
What happened
In Shabazz v. BET Networks, the court ordered Danny Amen Valentine Shabazz to submit an application to waive filing fees or pay the $402 required fee within 30 days. The order was returned because the address Shabazz provided was insufficient.
Shabazz did not submit the fee-waiver application or pay the filing fee within the allowed time. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning it was not permanently barred from being filed again.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Shabazz v. BET Networks · No. 1:23-cv-09923
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 22, 2024
Background
The court’s December 11, 2023 order directed Plaintiff Danny Amen Valentine Shabazz, within 30 days, either to submit an application to proceed without paying filing fees—called an application to proceed in forma pauperis—or to pay the $402 filing fee required for a civil action. The order warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal of the complaint.
On January 2, 2024, the December 11 order was returned to the Clerk’s Office because the address provided by Plaintiff was insufficient. The opinion states that Plaintiff had not submitted the fee-waiver application or paid the filing fee by the relevant time.
Ruling
The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Plaintiff did not submit the application or pay the filing fee within the time allowed. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain 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.