Compres v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-02259
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Compres v. Doe, Judge Swain ordered Angel Compres to pay fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment, or face dismissal.
Angel Compres, a detained prisoner representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the required forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Compres v. Doe, Angel Compres, who is detained at West Facility on Rikers Island and is representing himself, submitted a civil complaint without paying the required fees or completing the required forms.
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405 in filing and administrative fees or request permission to proceed without paying fees upfront. That request requires a signed application and authorization allowing installment payments from the prisoner’s account.
The court gave Compres 30 days to pay the fees or submit the required forms. It directed that no summons issue yet and stated that the action will be dismissed if he does not comply. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without paying fees because an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Compres v. Doe · No. 1:25-cv-02259
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 25, 2025
Background
Angel Compres brought this civil action while detained at West Facility on Rikers Island and proceeded without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees or a prisoner authorization.
Applicable requirements
The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay $405 in fees— a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepayment of fees. If that application is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization directs the facility to make those deductions and provide certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months.
Order
The court ordered Compres, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-2259 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if Compres 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.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that any 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 merits of Compres’s claims. It also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a qualifying dismissal under the prisoner litigation statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.