Sivak v. Burdick
- Martinez-Olguin
- 3:24-cv-02059
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Sivak v. Thompson, Judge Martinez-Olguin dismissed the cases without prejudice and denied pending appellate fee-waiver motions.
Lacey Sivak's twelve listed actions were dismissed without prejudice because he did not pay the required filing fees. Any pending requests to proceed without paying fees on appeal were denied, while other pending motions were terminated as moot and the cases were closed.
What happened
In Lacey Sivak v. Judge Trina L. Thompson, et al., Lacey Sivak, an Idaho state prisoner representing himself, filed the listed actions. The court had denied his requests to proceed without paying filing fees because he had at least three prior dismissals and had not shown specific imminent danger of serious physical injury when he filed the actions.
The court gave Sivak fourteen days to pay the full filing fee in each case. He did not pay by the deadline and instead appealed some of the orders. The court explained that it retained jurisdiction because the Ninth Circuit had not granted permission for those interlocutory appeals.
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin dismissed each listed action without prejudice, allowing Sivak to seek reopening by paying the full filing fee for each case. Judge Martinez-Olguin also denied any pending requests to proceed without paying fees on appeal, terminated the other pending motions as moot, and ordered the cases closed.
The detailed version
- Sivak v. Burdick · No. 3:24-cv-02059
- Martinez-Olguin
- July 11, 2024
Background
Lacey Sivak, an Idaho state prisoner who represented himself, filed the above-captioned actions. The cases are identified by these docket numbers: 24-cv-00631-AMO (PR), 24-cv-00932-AMO (PR), 24-cv-01039-AMO (PR), 24-cv-01056-AMO (PR), 24-cv-01207-AMO (PR), 24-cv-01208-AMO (PR), 24-cv-01209-AMO (PR), 24-cv-01210-AMO (PR), 24-cv-02059-AMO (PR), 24-cv-02944-AMO (PR), 24-cv-02945-AMO (PR), and 23-cv-06251-AMO (PR).
In each case, the court denied Sivak's motion to proceed without paying the filing fee under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). That statute bars a prisoner from proceeding without paying the fee when the prisoner has had three or more prior actions or appeals dismissed, unless the prisoner shows that he faced a specific imminent danger of serious physical injury when filing. The court found that Sivak had three or more prior dismissals, had not alleged the required imminent danger, and did not meet the standard for proceeding without paying the filing fee.
Jurisdiction and Filing-Fee Deadline
The court directed Sivak to pay the full filing fee within fourteen days or risk dismissal without prejudice. Sivak did not pay the fees by the deadlines and appealed some of the orders. The court explained that an interlocutory appeal generally transfers jurisdiction over the appealed issues to the court of appeals, but that such an appeal is not treated as filed until the court of appeals permits it. Because the Ninth Circuit had not granted Sivak permission to bring the interlocutory appeals, the district court concluded that it retained jurisdiction over the actions.
Rulings
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin dismissed each above-captioned action without prejudice because Sivak had not paid the filing fee by the deadline. The order states that Sivak may file a motion to reopen any of the cases after paying the full filing fee, and that a separate full filing fee is required for each case he seeks to reopen and pursue.
The court also denied any pending motion for permission to proceed without paying the filing fee on appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), for the same reasons the district court denied that status in the underlying cases. The order states that the Ninth Circuit will independently review the record if Sivak seeks that status there and will decide whether to grant it. The Clerk was ordered to terminate as moot all other pending motions in each case and close all of the cases.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.