Latimer v. Schnell
- Dulce Foster
- 0:23-cv-00190
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 4
In Latimer v. Schnell, Judge Foster ordered prisoner Mark Latimer to pay $4.39 before proceeding and warned of possible dismissal if he did not.
Mark Latimer must pay the $4.39 initial partial filing fee within 20 days to proceed. If he does not, the court will recommend dismissing his action without prejudice for failure to prosecute. Paul Schnell and William Bolin are defendants in the action, but the order does not decide the claims against them.
What happened
In Latimer v. Schnell, self-represented prisoner Mark Latimer sued Paul Schnell and William Bolin under a federal civil-rights law. He asked to proceed without paying the filing fee in advance.
The court calculated an initial payment of $4.39 based on Latimer’s prison account. Latimer must pay it within 20 days, and any remaining statutory filing fee must be paid through later account deductions.
Judge Dulce J. Foster ordered the payment and said the court would recommend dismissing the case without prejudice if Latimer did not pay on time. The court did not decide whether the complaint’s civil-rights claims were valid.
The detailed version
- Latimer v. Schnell · No. 0:23-cv-00190
- Dulce J. Foster
- Mar. 14, 2023
Background
Mark Latimer, a prisoner representing himself, filed a civil-rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Paul Schnell and William Bolin. He did not pay the filing fee when he filed the complaint and instead submitted an application to proceed without paying the full fee in advance.
Filing-fee ruling
The court applied the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s prisoner-payment rules. Those rules do not eliminate a prisoner’s filing fee. Instead, they generally require an initial partial payment followed by monthly payments from the prisoner’s account until the statutory filing fee is paid.
Latimer’s account records showed average monthly deposits of $21.95 and an average balance of $5.97 during the six months before he filed the complaint. Because the deposits were higher, the court calculated the initial partial filing fee as 20 percent of $21.95, or $4.39.
The order requires Latimer to pay at least $4.39 within 20 days of the order. If he proceeds by paying that amount, he must later pay the remaining balance of the $350 statutory filing fee through deductions from his trust account. The court stated that those payments would be required regardless of whether Latimer ultimately succeeds in the case.
Potential complaint deficiencies
The court did not decide the merits of Latimer’s civil-rights claims. It warned that, after payment, it would screen the complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A. Screening is the court’s preliminary review of a prisoner’s complaint for frivolousness, maliciousness, failure to state a claim, or claims seeking money from an immune defendant.
The court identified possible problems with the complaint. It said the complaint did not specify whether Schnell and Bolin were sued in their official or personal capacities. It also said the complaint might not identify how each defendant was personally involved in violating Latimer’s rights. The court suggested that Latimer consider filing an amended complaint that stands on its own and includes all allegations and claims he intends to pursue.
Order and effect
The court ordered Latimer to pay the $4.39 initial partial filing fee within 20 days. If he does not, the court will recommend dismissing the action without prejudice for failure to prosecute. The order did not itself dismiss the case or resolve the complaint’s legal sufficiency. Judge Dulce J. Foster signed the order as a United States magistrate judge.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.