Hickman v. City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-08860
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Quandell Hickman v. City of New York, Chief Judge Swain ordered payment or a completed fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Quandell Hickman, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit the required IFP application and prisoner authorization within 30 days. The case may be dismissed if he does not comply.
What happened
In Quandell Hickman v. City of New York, Quandell Hickman filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to ask to proceed without prepaying them. The opinion says he is incarcerated and representing himself.
The court gave Hickman 30 days to pay $405 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment payments from his account and provide certified account statements from the prior six months. No response from the defendants was required at that time.
The court said the case would be processed if Hickman complied and would be dismissed if he did not. Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order because the appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Hickman v. City of New York · No. 1:25-cv-08860
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 27, 2025
Background
Quandell Hickman filed this civil action without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without paying the fees in advance. The opinion states that Hickman is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and is proceeding without a lawyer.
Fees and required documents
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $405—the $350 filing fee and $55 administrative fee—or submit a signed IFP application and a prisoner authorization. If IFP status is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and send the court certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months. The $55 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
Order
The court ordered Hickman, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 in fees or submit the IFP application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 25-CV-8860. The court stated that no answer from the defendants was required at that time. If Hickman 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.
Appeal and classification
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain 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 does not decide the merits of Hickman's underlying claims. It is a procedural order addressing payment of filing fees and an application to proceed without prepayment. The court also cautioned that certain later dismissals could count as strikes under the prisoner litigation statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.