DeLeon v. Rikers Island DOC

Background

Francisco DeLeon filed this civil action without a lawyer and without paying the required filing fees. The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405—$350 for the filing fee and $55 for the administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying the fees.

To make that request, DeLeon had to submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application, and a prisoner authorization. The authorization allows the facility holding him to deduct the $350 filing fee from his account in installments and requires certified account statements for the previous six months.

Order

The court ordered DeLeon, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $405 in fees or submit the completed IFP application and prisoner authorization. The documents were to identify docket number 25-CV-7072 (LTS).

No summons will issue at this time. Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the case be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if DeLeon complies. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.

The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order cautioned that certain future dismissals of a prisoner’s federal civil actions may count as strikes under the prisoner litigation statute, and that three strikes generally restrict a prisoner’s ability to file future federal civil actions without prepaying fees, subject to the statute’s exception for imminent danger of serious physical injury.