Andrade
- Haywood Gilliam
- 5:24-cv-07434
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Andrade v. C.D.C.R., Judge Gilliam extended Andrade’s deadline to pay the filing fee or submit a complete fee-waiver application.
Emanuel Rodriguez Andrade must either pay the filing fee or file a complete application to proceed without prepaying it by January 6, 2025. The clerk must send him the application form, and failure to comply will result in dismissal of the action.
What happened
Emanuel Rodriguez Andrade filed this case after submitting a document titled “Truth Affidavit.” The court told him to file a complaint on the proper form and either pay the filing fee or request permission to proceed without paying it upfront. Andrade filed the proper complaint but did neither of the required fee-related steps.
Andrade argued that federal law and the Uniform Commercial Code required the United States to provide a blank check to pay his filing fee. The court rejected that theory and explained that he must either pay the fee or submit a complete application to proceed without prepaying it.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. granted Andrade until January 6, 2025, to pay the filing fee or file the complete application. The clerk must send Andrade the application form. The court warned that failing to meet the deadline will result in dismissal of the case without further notice.
The detailed version
- Andrade · No. 5:24-cv-07434
- Haywood Gilliam
- Dec. 9, 2024
Background
Emanuel Rodriguez Andrade commenced this action on or about October 24, 2024, by filing a pleading titled “Truth Affidavit.” The court issued deficiency notices stating that the action could not proceed unless Andrade filed a complaint on the proper form and either paid the filing fee or submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without prepaying the filing fee. The court set November 21, 2024, as the deadline and warned that the case would be dismissed if the deficiencies were not corrected.
Andrade corrected the complaint-form deficiency by filing a complaint on the proper form. He did not, however, file an application to proceed in forma pauperis or pay the filing fee. He argued that the United States was required to issue him a blank check based on House Joint Resolution 192, cited presidential material, and provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code. The court rejected that theory, citing other decisions that had rejected similar arguments about secret government trust accounts, House Joint Resolution 192, and the Uniform Commercial Code providing a way to discharge filing-fee obligations.
Court’s Action
The court stated that a civil action requires payment of the filing fee unless the plaintiff is allowed to proceed without prepaying it. The court therefore granted Andrade an extension of time until January 6, 2025, to either pay the filing fee or file a complete application to proceed in forma pauperis. The clerk was directed to send Andrade the application form. The court warned that failure to comply with the deadline would result in dismissal of the action for failure to follow a court order, without further notice. Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.