Bonie v. Annucci
- Louis Stanton
- 1:20-cv-02409
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bonie v. Annucci, Judge McMahon ordered pro se prisoner Nasean Bonie to pay fees or submit IFP forms before the case could proceed.
Nasean Bonie, who must either pay the required fees or submit the specified forms for the action to proceed; the defendants were not required to respond because no summons issued.
What happened
In Bonie v. Annucci, Nasean Bonie filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying them. The opinion says Bonie was incarcerated and represented himself.
The court gave Bonie 30 days to either pay $400 or submit the court’s application and authorization forms. The authorization would allow installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prison account and provide the court with certified account statements for the previous six months.
Chief United States District Judge Colleen McMahon ordered that no summons issue yet and said the case would be processed if Bonie complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed. The court also denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Bonie v. Annucci · No. 1:20-cv-02409
- Louis Stanton
- Mar. 19, 2020
Background
Nasean Bonie filed this civil action against Anthony Annucci and other defendants while incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility. The opinion states that Bonie was proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Under the statutes cited by the court, a prisoner must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application, along with a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires installment deductions from the prisoner’s account for the $350 filing fee. The authorization also directs the facility to send certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months.
Bonie submitted a self-created prisoner authorization, but the court directed him to use the attached forms.
Order
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered Bonie, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $400 in fees or to submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-2409 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Bonie and record service on the docket.
No summons was to issue at that time. If Bonie complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants. It additionally cautioned that a future dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the prisoner litigation statute, and that three such strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.