Crumbsie v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 7:25-cv-00228
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Crumbsie v. Doe, Judge Swain ordered payment or a completed fee-waiver application within 30 days, warning that noncompliance would lead to dismissal.
Spencer T. Crumbsie, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit the required forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Spencer T. Crumbsie v. John Doe, Portchester Police Station Officer, the incarcerated plaintiff filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court ordered Crumbsie, within 30 days, either to pay $405 or submit the required application and authorization for installment payments from his prison account. No summons would issue while the case awaited compliance.
Judge Swain stated that the case would be processed if Crumbsie complied and dismissed if he did not. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Crumbsie v. Doe · No. 7:25-cv-00228
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 13, 2025
Background
Spencer T. Crumbsie, who was incarcerated at Elmira Correctional Facility, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without completing an application to proceed without prepaying fees or the required prisoner authorization.
Order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization permits those deductions and requires certified account statements for the previous six months.
The court ordered Crumbsie to pay the $405 or submit the completed forms within 30 days of the order. The forms were to identify docket number 25-CV-0228 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. If Crumbsie complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Effect
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order addressed filing requirements and did not decide the underlying claims against the defendant.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.