Brown v. Nash
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-02824
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Brown v. Nash, Judge Swain ordered the pro se plaintiff to correct signatures, provide an address, and pay fees or submit a complete application to avoid dismissal.
Nkosi S. Brown and the processing of his civil action, including whether it proceeds after he supplies the required signatures, address, and fee payment or application.
What happened
In Brown v. Nash, Nkosi S. Brown filed a complaint without a lawyer, but the complaint was unsigned and the application to proceed without paying fees was incomplete and unsigned.
The court gave Brown 30 days from April 18, 2024, to either pay $405 in fees or submit a completed fee application and a signed complaint page. Brown also had to provide an address; no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the case would be processed if Brown complied, but the action would be dismissed if he did not. She also denied permission to proceed without paying fees on an appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Brown v. Nash · No. 1:24-cv-02824
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 18, 2024
Background
Nkosi S. Brown brought the action without a lawyer. The complaint he submitted was unsigned, and his application to proceed without prepaying fees was both incomplete and unsigned.
Under the federal filing-fee statutes, a civil plaintiff must either pay $405—the $350 filing fee and $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed application requesting permission to proceed without prepaying fees. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 also requires an unrepresented party to personally sign the complaint and other papers.
Order
The court ordered Brown, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $405 in fees, or submit the attached fee application and complaint signature page. Any submitted materials had to be labeled with docket number 24-CV-2824. If the court granted the fee application, Brown could proceed without prepaying fees.
The court also alerted Brown that he had to provide an address because the clerk’s office could not mail the order to him without one. No summons would issue at that time. If Brown complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and disposition
The court certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. This was a filing and case-processing order, not a decision on the underlying claims. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order as Chief United States District Judge.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.