IN RE: Rachel Genevieve Powers Trust v. Webb
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-03094
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Rachel Genevieve Powers v. Webb, Judge Swain ordered payment or an application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days and directed that no summons issue yet.
Rachel Genevieve Powers must either pay $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days; the defendants were not yet served because no summons issued.
What happened
In Rachel Genevieve Powers v. Jeremiah Darnell Webb, et al., Rachel Genevieve Powers filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying them. The required fees total $405.
The court ordered Powers, who is representing herself, to pay the $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. The court said that no summons would issue at this time and that the action would be dismissed if she did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the claims’ merits.
The detailed version
- IN RE: Rachel Genevieve Powers Trust v. Webb · No. 1:24-cv-03094
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 24, 2024
Background
Rachel Genevieve Powers brought this civil action representing herself. She submitted the complaint without paying the filing and administrative fees and without submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Court’s Order
The court explained that proceeding with a civil action required either payment of $405—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submission of a signed IFP application under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915.
The court ordered Powers to do one of those two things within 30 days of the order. If she submitted the IFP application, it had to identify docket number 24-CV-3094 (LTS). The court stated that, if it granted the application, Powers could proceed without prepaying fees.
The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Powers complied, but that the action would be dismissed if she failed to comply within the allowed period.
Appeal-Related Ruling
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 IFP status for purposes of an appeal.
Disposition and Scope
This was an administrative and procedural order concerning payment of the filing fees or submission of an IFP application. The court did not address the underlying claims against the defendants.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.