Berguette v. Doe
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-04529
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Berguette v. Doe, Judge Swain ordered Gotti Berguette to pay filing fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment.
Gotti Berguette, a detained plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the specified IFP and prisoner-authorization forms within 30 days; the action may be dismissed if he does not comply.
What happened
Berguette v. Doe was filed by Gotti Berguette, who is detained at the West Facility Annex on Rikers Island and is representing himself. He submitted a complaint without paying the required fees or completing the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying them upfront.
The court gave Berguette 30 days to either pay $405 in fees or submit a signed application and authorization allowing installment payments from his account. The court also said that no summons would issue yet and that the case would be processed if he complied.
Judge Swain did not decide the claims in the complaint. She said the action would be dismissed if Berguette did not comply and denied permission to proceed without prepayment of fees for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Berguette v. Doe · No. 1:25-cv-04529
- Laura Swain
- June 5, 2025
Background
Gotti Berguette brought this civil action pro se, meaning without a lawyer. The opinion states that he is currently detained in the West Facility Annex on Rikers Island. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), which means proceeding without prepaying the fees, or a prisoner authorization.
Order
The court ordered Berguette, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay $405 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, or submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization. If the court grants the IFP application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from Berguette’s account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The authorization also directs the detention facility to deduct those payments and send the court certified account statements for the previous six months. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
Effect of the Order
No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Berguette complied, but that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time. The court certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner filing-fee statute. This order did not decide the merits of Berguette’s claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.