Cruz v. Ford
- Haywood Gilliam
- 4:19-cv-07649
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Cruz v. Ford, Judge Gilliam denied Cruz’s request to proceed without paying appellate fees, finding his appeal was not taken in good faith.
Guillermo Trujillo Cruz was denied permission to proceed without paying the appellate filing fees; the appeal was found not to have been taken in good faith.
What happened
In Cruz v. Ford, Guillermo Trujillo Cruz challenged the revocation of his fee waiver and the dismissal of his civil-rights case.
The court had revoked Cruz’s permission to proceed without paying fees because at least three earlier cases had been dismissed as qualifying strikes. After Cruz did not pay the required filing and administrative fees, the court dismissed the action and entered judgment for the defendants. Cruz then appealed and asked to pay the appellate filing fees in installments.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. treated Cruz’s request as an application to proceed without paying the appellate filing fees and denied it. The court found that the appeal was not taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Cruz v. Ford · No. 4:19-cv-07649
- Haywood Gilliam
- June 29, 2020
Background
Guillermo Trujillo Cruz filed this civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 without a lawyer. The court previously revoked his permission to proceed without paying filing fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), finding that at least three cases filed before this action had been dismissed as qualifying “strikes.” The court ordered him to pay the filing and administrative fees in full. When he did not do so, the court dismissed the action on April 29, 2020, and entered judgment for the defendants.
Cruz filed a notice of appeal. He then submitted a pleading asking that the case proceed and requesting permission to pay the appellate filing fees in installments. The court construed that pleading as a request to proceed without paying the appellate fees.
Ruling
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. denied Cruz’s request to proceed without paying the appellate filing fees. Applying 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3), the court found that the appeal was not taken in good faith. The order terminated the motion listed as Docket No. 21.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.