Williams v. Howard
- Katherine Menendez
- 0:20-cv-00439
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 2
In Williams v. Howard, Judge Thorson granted Williams’s application to proceed without prepaying fees, ordered a complaint clarification, and required payment of the remaining filing fee.
Terrence T. Williams must clarify his claims and pay the remaining filing fee through required institutional payments; the defendants and the institution authorities were affected by the clarification and payment directives.
What happened
In Williams v. Howard, Terrence T. Williams asked to proceed without prepaying the filing fee in his case against Brian Howard and six other defendants.
The court granted that application. It ordered Williams to file a one-page explanation stating whether he was suing the defendants personally, in their official roles as agents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, or both. The court also required Williams to pay the remaining $350 filing fee through payments from his institution account and found that he could not pay an initial partial fee.
Judge Becky R. Thorson issued the order on February 6, 2020. The order addressed filing requirements and did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Howard · No. 0:20-cv-00439
- Katherine Menendez
- Feb. 6, 2020
Background
Terrence T. Williams filed this action against Brian Howard, Dave Adams, Macey Tezmer, Durand Ackman, Mark Anderson, Travis Pries, and Madyson Erdelac. Williams applied to proceed without prepaying the filing fee.
Order
The court granted Williams’s application. It found that Williams had no assets or means to pay an initial partial filing fee, but ordered him to pay the unpaid balance of the statutory filing fee—$350—through payments required by federal law. The Clerk of Court was directed to notify the authorities at the institution where Williams was confined about that requirement.
The court also ordered Williams to submit, within 20 days, a one-page addendum to his complaint. The addendum must state whether he is suing the defendants in their personal capacities, their official capacities as agents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, or both. The court stated that, without clarification, it would interpret the complaint as asserting only official-capacity claims, which could affect the relief available to Williams.
Disposition and Effect
The court granted the application to proceed without prepaying fees and imposed the filing-fee and complaint-clarification requirements described above. The order did not resolve the merits of Williams’s claims. Judge Becky R. Thorson signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.