Gulley v. Doe

Background

Keon Gulley filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he is detained in the West Facility Annex on Rikers Island. He submitted the complaint without the required filing fees, a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees, or a prisoner authorization.

Required filing choices

The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405—the $350 filing fee and $55 administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court approves that application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.

Order and effect

The court ordered Gulley, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the required application and authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-4539. No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed through the Clerk’s Office if Gulley complied and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied payment without prepayment of fees for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the merits of Gulley’s claims or grant or deny his request to proceed without prepayment in the case itself. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the prisoner-filing statute.