Caldwell v. Smith-Williams
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-00923
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Caldwell v. Smith-Williams, Chief Judge Swain dismissed Boisey Caldwell’s case without prejudice for failing to obtain required filing permission.
Boisey Caldwell’s action was dismissed without prejudice, and Caldwell was denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee on appeal.
What happened
In Caldwell v. Smith-Williams, Boisey Caldwell filed a civil case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying the filing fee. An earlier court order required Caldwell to get permission before filing another such case without paying the fee.
Caldwell had not obtained that permission before filing this case. The court dismissed the action without prejudice because Caldwell did not follow the earlier order, without deciding the underlying claims.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied Caldwell permission to proceed without paying the fee for an appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the clerk to enter judgment.
The detailed version
- Caldwell v. Smith-Williams · No. 1:24-cv-00923
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 13, 2024
Background
Boisey Caldwell filed this civil action without a lawyer against the Department of Law Attorney’s Quiana Smith-Williams and other defendants. Caldwell asked to proceed without paying the filing fee, a status commonly called proceeding in forma pauperis (IFP).
The court said that an August 17, 2021 order had barred Caldwell from filing any future civil action in the Southern District of New York without paying the filing fee unless Caldwell first obtained permission from the court. Caldwell filed this action and sought IFP status but did not seek that required permission.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice because Caldwell failed to comply with the August 17, 2021 order. The court did not address the merits of Caldwell’s claims.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The court directed the clerk to enter judgment dismissing the action for the reason stated in the order. The order was signed by Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.