Merchant v. New York State
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-11088
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Merchant v. New York State, Chief Judge McMahon ordered a prisoner to pay fees or submit authorization before the case could proceed.
Scott Merchant, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, was required to pay the fees or submit the prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Merchant v. New York State, Scott Merchant filed a civil action without a lawyer while incarcerated. He submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront but did not submit the required authorization allowing payments to be deducted from his prison account.
The court gave Merchant 30 days to either pay $400 in fees or complete and submit the prisoner authorization. The court said no summons would issue yet and warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal of the action.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Merchant v. New York State · No. 1:19-cv-11088
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 4, 2019
Background
Scott Merchant, who was incarcerated at Downstate Correctional Facility, brought this action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Under federal law, a prisoner seeking to proceed without prepaying fees must submit both a signed application and an authorization directing the correctional facility to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner's account in installments. The total cost for a civil action is $400: a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. The administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court ordered Merchant, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $400 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization. The authorization was to identify docket number 19-CV-11088 (CM).
The Clerk of Court was directed to assign the matter to Judge McMahon's docket, mail the order to Merchant, and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Merchant complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Significance
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and therefore denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. Judge Colleen McMahon did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants in this order. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the federal prisoner-litigation statute, and that three strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless an imminent-danger exception applies.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.