Williams, Jr. v. City of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-10526
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Williams, Jr. v. City of New York, Judge McMahon ordered a prisoner to pay fees or submit forms before his state-court removal action could proceed.
Alexander Williams, Jr., an incarcerated person representing himself, had to pay the required fees or submit the specified forms before the federal case could proceed.
What happened
In Williams, Jr. v. City of New York, Alexander Williams, Jr., who was incarcerated and representing himself, sought to move an action from state court to federal court.
The court said he had to either pay $400 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying the fees up front, along with authorization for installment payments from his prisoner account. He had 30 days to comply, and no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk to process the case if Williams complied and stated that the action would be dismissed if he did not. The court also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Williams, Jr. v. City of New York · No. 1:19-cv-10526
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 18, 2019
Background
Alexander Williams, Jr., who was incarcerated at the Manhattan Detention Complex and acting without a lawyer, sought to remove an action from state court to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint was submitted without the required filing fees, a completed application to proceed without prepaying those fees, or a prisoner authorization.
Fee and payment requirements
The court explained that a prisoner seeking to proceed with a civil action must either pay $400—the $350 filing fee and $50 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to deduct those payments and provide certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the preceding six months. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepayment of fees.
Order
The court ordered Williams to do one of two things within 30 days: pay the $400 in fees or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization forms, labeled with the case docket number. The Clerk was directed to assign the matter to Judge McMahon's docket, mail Williams a copy of the order, and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time.
If Williams complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The order did not decide the underlying claims. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. Finally, the court cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner's action as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the federal prisoner-litigation statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.