Emerson v. NYCHA
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-10009
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
Judge Swain dismissed Emerson v. NYCHA without prejudice because plaintiffs neither paid filing fees nor submitted amended fee-waiver applications.
Tracey Emerson and Dennis Carter’s complaint was dismissed without prejudice; NYCHA was the defendant.
What happened
In Emerson v. NYCHA, Tracey Emerson and Dennis Carter filed the case without lawyers. The court had ordered each plaintiff to submit an amended application to waive the filing fee or pay $402 within 30 days.
Neither plaintiff submitted an amended application or paid the required fee. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling.
Judge Swain directed the clerk to enter judgment and denied fee-waiver status for any appeal after finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Emerson v. NYCHA · No. 1:23-cv-10009
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 1, 2024
Background
Tracey Emerson and Dennis Carter filed the action without lawyers. In an earlier order dated December 12, 2023, the court directed each plaintiff, within 30 days, to submit a completed amended application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $402 fee required to file a civil action. The court warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal.
Court’s Ruling
The plaintiffs did not submit amended fee-waiver applications or pay the filing fees. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The court also certified that any 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 to enter judgment.
Effect
The opinion resolves the action based on the plaintiffs’ failure to satisfy the filing-fee or fee-waiver requirement. It does not address the underlying claims against NYCHA.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.