Tindall v. United States
- Cathy Seibel
- 7:24-cv-09831
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Tindall v. United States, Judge Swain ordered Lamar Tindall to pay fees or submit required forms, and denied his request to appeal without prepaying fees.
Lamar Tindall, who must either pay the required fees or submit the specified application and prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Tindall v. United States, Lamar Tindall filed a civil case without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying them in advance. The order states that Tindall is incarcerated and is proceeding without a lawyer.
The court gave Tindall 30 days to either pay $405 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow the $350 filing fee to be deducted from his prison account in installments. No summons was issued at that time, and the court warned that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the underlying claims in the lawsuit.
The detailed version
- Tindall v. United States · No. 7:24-cv-09831
- Cathy Seibel
- Jan. 7, 2025
Background
Lamar Tindall filed this civil action without paying the required filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Tindall is incarcerated at F.C.I. Otisville and is proceeding without a lawyer.
Court’s instructions
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit the required application and authorization. If the court grants the application to proceed without prepaying fees, the $350 filing fee must still be paid in installments deducted from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the preceding six months and to send the installment payments to the court.
The court ordered Tindall, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 or submit the application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 24-CV-9831 (LTS). No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Tindall complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed.
Ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. This order addressed filing-fee and authorization requirements; it did not decide the merits of Tindall’s underlying claims.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.