Taaffe v. Department of Corrections

What the order concerns

Katy A. Taaffe filed a civil action against the Department of Corrections and other defendants while incarcerated at the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island. She represented herself. She submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or the required prisoner authorization.

Requirements imposed

The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405—$350 for the filing fee and $55 for the administrative fee—or submit the required application and authorization. If the court allows the case to proceed without prepayment, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The prisoner authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the previous six months and deduct the required payments.

Within 30 days of the order, Taaffe had to either pay the $405 or submit the application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 1:25-CV-0828 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if Taaffe complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if she failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.

Ruling

Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Taaffe to pay the fees or submit the required forms within 30 days. The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the merits of Taaffe’s claims.