Washington v. Minnesota Dept. of Corrections' Supervisor Officials
- Katherine Menendez
- 0:22-cv-02277
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 3
In Washington v. Minnesota Dept. of Corrections’ Supervisor Officials, Judge Menendez granted appeal-fee assistance but ordered Washington to pay $1.51 initially.
Monroe Bernard Washington must pay an initial partial appellate filing fee of $1.51, followed by monthly installment payments for the remainder of the filing fee. The defendants are affected only insofar as the order concerns Washington’s appeal of the earlier case dispositions.
What happened
In Washington v. Minnesota Dept. of Corrections’ Supervisor Officials, Monroe Bernard Washington asked to appeal earlier rulings without paying the entire appellate filing fee upfront.
The court found that Washington’s appeal was taken in good faith and granted his application to proceed without prepaying the fee. Because he is incarcerated, however, the fee was not waived: he must pay an initial partial fee of $1.51, with the rest paid monthly.
Judge Menendez ordered Washington to pay the $1.51 initial fee. This order did not change the earlier rulings dismissing claims against several defendants, dismissing the claim against Sergeant Hilleren without prejudice, and denying emergency injunctive relief.
The detailed version
- Washington v. Minnesota Dept. of Corrections' Supervisor Officials · No. 0:22-cv-02277
- Katherine Menendez
- May 2, 2024
Background
Monroe Bernard Washington applied to proceed without prepaying the appellate filing fee. The court considered his certified prison trust-account statement. Washington sought to appeal an earlier order that dismissed the case with prejudice as to Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights, Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater, Lieutenant Jason Hills, Sergeant Glenn Lisowy, Andy Dubois, Lieutenant David Spets, Sergeant Terra O’Connor, and Lieutenant Shane Jones; granted dismissal without prejudice as to Sergeant Hilleren; and denied Washington’s emergency injunction.
Legal standard
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915, a party who cannot pay litigation costs may be allowed to proceed without prepaying them. For incarcerated people, however, this status does not eliminate the filing fee. It allows payment in installments. The court also considered whether Washington’s appeal was taken in good faith.
Ruling
The court found that Washington was entitled to proceed without prepaying the appellate fee and that his appeal was taken in good faith. The court stated that his notice of appeal did not cause it to question whether its dismissal order was correct. It granted Washington’s application to proceed without prepaying the appellate fee and ordered him to pay an initial partial appellate filing fee of $1.51. The court stated that this amount represented 20 percent of the average monthly deposits in his trust account during the six months before he filed his notice of appeal. The remaining filing fee must be paid in monthly installments under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2).
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.