Sidberry v. New York City
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-06948
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Usamah Sidberry v. New York City, Judge Swain ordered payment or authorization for installment filing fees before the case proceeds.
Usamah Sidberry, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or authorize installment deductions before this case proceeds.
What happened
Usamah Sidberry v. New York City, et al. is a civil case brought by Sidberry, who is incarcerated and representing himself. He submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront but did not submit the required authorization for deductions from his prison account.
The court gave Sidberry 30 days to either pay $405 in fees or submit the prisoner authorization. No summons will issue yet; if he complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case, and if he does not, the action will be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not address the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Sidberry v. New York City · No. 1:25-cv-06948
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 28, 2025
Background
Usamah Sidberry, who is incarcerated at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island, brought this action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner seeking to proceed without prepaying fees must submit both an application and an authorization. If permission to proceed without prepayment is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the court to collect the $350 filing fee in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The separate $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted this status.
Within 30 days of the order, Sidberry must either pay the total $405 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 25-CV-6948 (LTS). No summons will issue at this time. If he complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he does not comply within the deadline, the action will be dismissed.
Other Rulings
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the merits of Sidberry’s claims. It also cautioned that a future dismissal of a prisoner’s federal action for being frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a legally sufficient claim can count as a “strike” under federal law, and that three strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces an imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.