Seymour v. Miller
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-02855
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Seymour v. Miller, Judge Swain ordered the pro se plaintiff to pay $405 or apply to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days.
Ernest Peter Seymour, Jr. must either pay the required $405 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. If he does not comply, the action will be dismissed.
What happened
Seymour v. Miller is a case brought by Ernest Peter Seymour, Jr., who is representing himself. He submitted a complaint without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court ordered him, within 30 days, either to pay $405 in filing and administrative fees or submit the attached application. No summons will issue at this time. If he does not comply, the action will be dismissed.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain also stated that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Seymour v. Miller · No. 1:24-cv-02855
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 24, 2024
Background
Ernest Peter Seymour, Jr. brought the action without a lawyer. The complaint named Harold Miller and other defendants. Seymour submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Court’s Order
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Seymour, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things:
- Pay $405, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee; or - Submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees.
If the court grants the application, Seymour may proceed without paying the fees in advance. The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Seymour does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed. The order did not decide the claims against the defendants.
Appeal and Classification
The court certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. This is a procedural order because it addresses the filing fee or fee-waiver requirement rather than the merits of the lawsuit.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.