Allen v. Garcia
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-00672
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Allen v. Garcia, Judge Swain ordered Ana C. Allen to pay fees or submit prisoner forms within 30 days, warning the action would otherwise be dismissed.
Ana C. Allen must either pay the stated fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action. Joanne Garcia is not required to respond at this stage because no summons has issued.
What happened
In Allen v. Garcia, Ana C. Allen filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying fees upfront. The order states that Allen is incarcerated and is representing herself.
The court gave Allen 30 days to either pay $405 in fees or submit a signed application and prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment deductions from her prison account for the $350 filing fee. The court directed that no summons issue for now.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain warned that the action would be dismissed if Allen did not comply within 30 days. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Allen v. Garcia · No. 1:25-cv-00672
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 3, 2025
Background
Ana C. Allen brought this civil action while incarcerated at Rose M. Singer Center and is proceeding without a lawyer. Allen submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without completing an application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Required payment or forms
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 request permission to proceed without prepaying fees by submitting a signed application and prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the prior six months.
Order
The court ordered Allen, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 1:25-CV-0672 (LTS). No summons shall issue at this time. The court stated that, if Allen complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures; if Allen does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order cautioned that certain future dismissals of prisoner actions may count as strikes under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). The opinion does not address the underlying claims against Joanne Garcia.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.