Court, Explained
U.S. Federal District Courts
Back to docket
N.D. Cal.Procedural orderFiled Dec. 14, 2023

Herndon v. San Rafael P. D.

Docket
3:23-cv-04669
Court
U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
Pages
1
HabeasCivil Procedure
In one sentence

Herndon v. San Rafael P. D.: the court dismissed the petition without prejudice for failing to pay or properly request fee relief and denied a certificate of appealability.

Who this affects

Gerrod Herndon, whose habeas petition was dismissed without prejudice because he did not pay the filing fee or submit the required application to proceed without paying it.

What happened

Gerrod Herndon, a former state prisoner, filed a petition asking for habeas relief. The court notified him that he had to pay the $5 filing fee or submit a non-prisoner application to proceed without paying it, but he did neither by the deadline.

The court dismissed the petition without prejudice because Herndon did not correct the filing deficiency. He submitted a trust-account statement but not the required application and did not pay the filing fee.

The court also denied a certificate of appealability, finding that Herndon had not made the required showing that reasonable judges could debate whether the dismissal was wrong. The order was issued by the court; the judge’s name is unclear in the provided text.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
Herndon v. San Rafael P. D. · No. 3:23-cv-04669
Date
Dec. 14, 2023

Background

Gerrod Herndon, identified in the order as a former state prisoner who was residing at All Saints Extended Care, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The Clerk notified him that the case was deficient because he had not paid the $5 filing fee or submitted a non-prisoner application to proceed without paying the fee.

The court gave Herndon 28 days to correct the deficiency and warned that the petition could be dismissed. The deadline passed. Herndon submitted a trust-account statement, but he did not submit the required application or pay the filing fee.

Ruling

The court dismissed the petition without prejudice. This means the order did not bar a later filing, although the opinion does not describe any requirements for refiling.

The court also denied a certificate of appealability. It found that Herndon had not made a substantial showing that a reasonable judge could debate whether the dismissal was wrong. The Clerk was directed to enter judgment and close the file.

The judge’s name is not clearly legible in the provided signature block.

The authoritative version

Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

Open opinion PDF →
Summary written with AI assistance. See how summaries are made. Spot something wrong? Tell us.