Kenyatta v. Combs
- John Koeltl
- 1:24-cv-06923
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Kenyatta v. Combs, Judge Swain ordered payment or proper fee-waiver documents within 30 days and denied appeal fee waiver.
Charles Kenyatta, Jr., an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer; the defendants were not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
In Charles Kenyatta, Jr. v. Combs et al., the incarcerated plaintiff filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court explained that he must either pay $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment deductions from his prison account for the $350 filing fee.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain gave Kenyatta 30 days to comply and said the action would be dismissed if he did not. She also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order and did not require the defendants to answer at this time.
The detailed version
- Kenyatta v. Combs · No. 1:24-cv-06923
- John Koeltl
- Sept. 18, 2024
Background
Charles Kenyatta, Jr., who is incarcerated at Collins Correctional Facility, filed this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
The court ordered Kenyatta, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay $405 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, or submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying fees and the prisoner authorization. The application is commonly called an IFP application, meaning an application to proceed without prepaying court fees.
If the court grants the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires collection of the $350 filing fee in installments from Kenyatta’s prison account. The prisoner authorization permits the facility to deduct those amounts and send the court certified account statements for the prior six months. The court stated that no answer from the defendants was required at that time and that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Kenyatta complied. If he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
The court certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims in the complaint.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.