Aponte v. City of Yonkers
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-11267
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Aponte v. City of Yonkers, Judge McMahon ordered payment or fee paperwork within 30 days.
John Aponte’s civil action against the City of Yonkers and St. John’s Hospital was placed on hold pending payment of the fees or submission of the required forms; the order did not address the claims’ merits.
What happened
Aponte v. City of Yonkers concerns John Aponte’s civil lawsuit against the City of Yonkers and St. John’s Hospital. The order states that Aponte was incarcerated and representing himself when he filed the complaint.
Aponte had not paid the required fees or submitted completed forms to request permission to proceed without paying the fees upfront. The court gave him 30 days to pay $400 or submit the required forms. No summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk’s Office to send Aponte the order and process the case if he complied. The court stated that it would dismiss the action if he did not comply and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Aponte v. City of Yonkers · No. 1:19-cv-11267
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 10, 2019
Background
John Aponte filed a civil action against the City of Yonkers and St. John’s Hospital. The opinion states that Aponte was incarcerated at Mohawk Correctional Facility and was proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Filing-fee requirements
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit the required application and authorization forms. If permission to proceed without prepaying fees is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s prison trust-fund account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to deduct those payments and provide certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the previous six months. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order and effect
The court ordered Aponte, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 or submit the completed application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 19-CV-11267 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to assign the matter to Judge Colleen McMahon’s docket, mail Aponte a copy of the order, and note service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. If Aponte complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the court would dismiss the action. 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 certain dismissals of prisoner lawsuits can count as strikes under federal law, potentially limiting a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future federal civil actions.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.