Wynder v. Lin

Background

Kenneth Wynder Jr. filed a civil action against Robert Lin and other defendants while incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He is representing himself. He submitted the complaint without paying the required filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.

Fees and required filings

The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. To make that request, the prisoner must submit a signed application and an authorization directing the facility to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prison account in installments and to provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.

Order

The court ordered Wynder, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization. The documents should identify docket number 25-CV-2961 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If Wynder complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a legally sufficient claim can count as a strike under the prisoner litigation statute. The order did not address the merits of Wynder’s claims.