Gilberti PE v. Holy See

Background

Joseph D. Gilberti PE filed this civil action without a filing-fee payment, a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Gilberti is proceeding without a lawyer and is currently held at the Sarasota County Jail in Sarasota, Florida.

The court’s order

The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $55 for the administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. A prisoner seeking that permission must submit a signed application and an authorization allowing the facility to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner’s account in installments. The authorization must also direct the facility to send certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the previous six months.

The court gave Gilberti 30 days from the date of the order to pay the $405 or submit the required application and authorization forms. The forms were to be labeled with docket number 24-CV-9107 (LTS). No summons was to issue at that time. If Gilberti complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.

Appeal and additional warning

The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and therefore denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous or malicious, or for failure to state a legally sufficient claim, could count as a statutory “strike” affecting the prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future cases.

Disposition

This was a procedural order about payment of filing fees and submission of an application and prisoner authorization. The court did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.