Milner v. The State of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-11854
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Milner v. State of New York, Chief Judge McMahon ordered the pro se plaintiff to pay fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
John W. Milner must either pay the required filing fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment within 30 days; otherwise, the action will be dismissed.
What happened
In Milner v. State of New York, John W. Milner filed a civil complaint without paying the required fees or submitting an application to proceed without prepayment of fees. The order states that he filed the action without a lawyer.
The court gave Milner 30 days from the order’s date to either pay $400 or submit the provided application. No summons would issue at that time, and the case would be processed if he complied.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon ordered these steps and stated that the action would be dismissed if Milner did not comply. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Milner v. The State of New York · No. 1:19-cv-11854
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 30, 2019
Background
John W. Milner filed this civil action without a lawyer. The complaint was submitted without the required filing fees and without an application asking to proceed without prepayment of fees.
Required Filing
The court explained that a plaintiff must either pay $400 in fees—comprising a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment under 28 U.S.C. § 1915. The court ordered Milner, within 30 days of the order, to do one of those two things. If he submitted the application, it had to identify docket number 19-CV-11854 (CM). The court stated that, if it granted the application, Milner could proceed without prepaying the fees.
The court directed the Clerk of Court to assign the matter to Judge McMahon’s docket, mail the order to Milner, and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that the action would be dismissed if Milner failed to comply within the allowed period.
Other Rulings
The order notes that Milner had previously asserted the same or similar claims in a prior related proceeding, identified as No. 19-CV-2889 (S.D.N.Y.). The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Disposition
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon ordered Milner to pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment within 30 days. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.