Gardner v. New York City
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-02333
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Gardner v. New York City, Judge McMahon ordered Franklin Gardner to pay fees or submit proper forms, without deciding his claims.
Franklin Gardner, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, was required to pay the fees or submit a completed fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization.
What happened
In Gardner v. New York City, Franklin Gardner, who was incarcerated and representing himself, filed a complaint without the required payment or a properly completed application to avoid prepaying court fees.
The court gave Gardner 30 days to pay $400 or submit a completed fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization. The court said the action would be dismissed if he did not comply, and no summons would issue yet.
Judge McMahon also ruled that an appeal from this order would not qualify for fee-waiver status because it would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Gardner v. New York City · No. 1:20-cv-02333
- Colleen McMahon
- Mar. 24, 2020
Background
Franklin Gardner filed this civil action while incarcerated at Elmira Correctional Facility and representing himself. He submitted a complaint without paying the required fees. He also submitted a fee-waiver application, but it was captioned for Kings County Supreme Court and was incomplete.
Fee requirements
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400—the $350 filing fee and $50 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. To make that request, a prisoner must submit a signed application and a prisoner authorization. The authorization permits installment deductions from the prisoner's account for the $350 filing fee and requires certified copies of the account statements for the previous six months.
Ruling
The court ordered Gardner, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the $400 in fees or submit the attached completed application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-2333 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Gardner and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that, if Gardner complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Colleen McMahon certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a statutory “strike” affecting a prisoner's ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future cases.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.