Reed v. Griffin

Filing 7

ORDER signed by Judge Rudolph T. Randa on 10/27/2015 GRANTING 1 Plaintiff's application for waiver of court filing fees. (cc: via mail to Linda Reed, courtesy copy to Hon. G. Michael Halfenger)(cb)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
LINDA REED,
Appellant-Plaintiff,
-vs-

Case No. 15-C-920
(Adversary No. 15-02259)

JOSEPH L. GRIFFIN, JR.,
Appellee-Debtor.

DECISION AND ORDER
Pro se Appellant-Plaintiff Linda Reed (“Reed”) has filed an
application for a waiver of court filing fees. (ECF No. 1.)

The Judicial

Conference Schedule of Fees, Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee
Schedule (reprinted in 28 U.S.C. § 1930), effective December 1, 2014,
provides in paragraph 14 that the fee for filing an appeal or cross appeal
from a judgment, order, or decree is $293, in addition to the $5.00 fee
collected when a notice of appeal is filed.
In order to proceed without payment of court filing fees on appeal, a
movant must be unable to pay the required fees, 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1), and
the appeal must be taken in good faith, 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3).1 An appeal is

Although not directly addressing whether a plaintiff in a bankruptcy adversary
proceeding may proceed on appeal without payment of a filing fee, the Court interprets
In re Richmond, 247 Fed. Appx. 831, 833 (7th Cir. 2007), an unpublished opinion which
addressed a creditor’s application to bring an adversary proceeding in a pending
1

not taken in good faith if the claim is objectively frivolous and no reasonable
person could suppose that the appeal has any merit. Lee v. Clinton, 209 F.3d
1025, 1026 (7th Cir. 2000).
Reed states she is divorced, lives alone, has received food stamps
within the past four weeks and also receives social security benefits. Her total
income is $973 and her total expenses are $1,050. At this juncture, she has
established that she is unable to a pay the fees for filing the bankruptcy
appeal.

Reed appeals the July 16, 2015, Order of the Bankruptcy Court,
which dismissed her adversary complaint because she failed to show a good
faith basis to maintain that the debt owed to her was not discharged in the
debtors’ previous bankruptcy, In re Joseph L. Griffin, Jr., and Lotoya S.
Griffin, No. 05-27208-svk (Bankr. E.D. Wis.); and because she did not make
any allegation that would have afforded her standing or a basis to allege
that the debtors are not entitled to a discharge. In her moving brief, Reed
offers multiple arguments that her alleged debt was not or should not be
deemed to have been discharged.

At this juncture, the Court cannot

determine that her arguments are objectively frivolous. Reed’s request for
a waiver of court filing fees is granted.
Chapter 7 proceeding, as extending to an appeal from an attempt to bring an adversary
proceeding.

-2-

NOW, THEREFORE, BASED ON THE FOREGOING, IT IS
HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
Reed’s request for a waiver of court filing fees (ECF No. 1) is
GRANTED.
The Clerk of Court is directed to transmit a courtesy copy of this
Order to Bankruptcy Judge G. Michael Halfenger.
Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 27th day of October, 2015.

BY THE COURT:

__________________________
HON. RUDOLPH T. RANDA
U.S. District Judge

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