Mays v. Bloomington Police Department

Background

Otis Mays sued the Bloomington Police Department, the City of Bloomington, Carolyn Kne, unidentified defendants, and the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center. He did not pay the filing fee when he filed the case. Instead, he applied for permission to proceed without paying the entire fee in advance.

Because Mays is a prisoner, the court applied 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b), part of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. That statute requires a prisoner granted permission to proceed without prepaying the full fee to pay the full statutory filing fee through an initial partial payment and later installment payments. The initial payment is 20 percent of the greater of the prisoner’s average monthly deposits or average monthly balance during the six months before filing.

Fee calculation

Mays’s trust-account statement showed average monthly deposits of $69.02 and an average monthly balance of $9.08. Because the deposits were greater, the court calculated 20 percent of $69.02, or $13.81, as the initial partial filing fee.

The court explained that the remaining balance of the $350 statutory filing fee would be collected in later installments from Mays’s trust account. Prison officials would be directed to send payments to the court when required by the statute, regardless of whether Mays ultimately succeeded in the case. The opinion distinguished the $350 statutory filing fee from the separate administrative fee and stated that the installment requirement applied to the statutory fee.

Ruling

The court ordered Mays to pay an initial partial filing fee of at least $13.81 within 30 days of the order. The order also stated that the case would not go forward until that fee was paid in full.

If Mays failed to pay within 30 days, the court would recommend that the action be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute. The order itself did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.