Wynder, JR. v. Goltzer, Esq.
- Gregory Woods
- 1:24-cv-07925
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Wynder v. Goltzer, Judge Swain ordered Kenneth Wynder to pay filing fees or submit a prisoner authorization within 30 days.
Kenneth N. Wynder, Jr.; the action will proceed to processing only if he pays the fees or submits the required prisoner authorization within 30 days.
What happened
In Wynder, JR. v. Goltzer, Esq., Kenneth N. Wynder, Jr., who is incarcerated and proceeding without a lawyer, submitted an application to avoid paying court fees upfront. He did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Wynder to either pay $405 in fees or submit the completed authorization within 30 days. The authorization would allow installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prisoner account. No summons will issue yet, and the case will be processed if he complies; otherwise, the court said the action will be dismissed.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also found that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Wynder, JR. v. Goltzer, Esq. · No. 1:24-cv-07925
- Gregory Woods
- Oct. 23, 2024
Background
Kenneth N. Wynder, Jr. brought this civil action while incarcerated and proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner who wants to proceed without prepaying fees must submit both an application and a signed prisoner authorization. If permission to proceed without prepaying fees is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to send the court certified account statements for the previous six months. The separate $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that status.
The court ordered Wynder, within 30 days of the order, either to pay $405 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 24-CV-7925 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If Wynder complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the court stated that the action will be dismissed.
Appeal and Other Warnings
The court certified that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order also warned that a later dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim may count as a statutory “strike,” which can affect the prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future cases. This order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.