Kenyatta v. The City of New York

Background

Charles Kenyatta, Jr. filed this civil action against the City of New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and the State of New York. The opinion states that he is incarcerated at Collins Correctional Facility and is proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.

Fee and filing requirements

The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405—the $350 filing fee and $55 administrative fee—or submit the required fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization. If the court grants the fee-waiver application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to deduct those payments and provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted fee-waiver status under the cited statute.

Ruling and consequences

Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Kenyatta, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the completed application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-2868 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. The order states that, if he complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed. The court certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. The court also cautioned that a dismissal of a prisoner's federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim can count as a strike, and that three strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless an imminent danger exception applies.