Moultrie v. New York City Department of Correction
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-02852
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Moultrie v. New York City Department of Correction, Judge McMahon ordered a signed prisoner authorization or $400 payment within 30 days.
Mukadien Moultrie, the incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer; the action would be dismissed if he did not pay the fees or submit a completed prisoner authorization within 30 days.
What happened
Moultrie v. New York City Department of Correction is a lawsuit brought by Mukadien Moultrie, who was incarcerated and represented himself. The court had not yet issued a summons or addressed the claims in the lawsuit.
Moultrie submitted a blank and unsigned form authorizing deductions from his prisoner account. The court explained that he could either pay $400 in fees or submit a completed prisoner authorization allowing installment payments of the $350 filing fee and providing six months of account statements.
Judge Colleen McMahon gave Moultrie 30 days to comply and said the action would be dismissed if he did not. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees and directed the Clerk to mail him the order.
The detailed version
- Moultrie v. New York City Department of Correction · No. 1:20-cv-02852
- Colleen McMahon
- Apr. 9, 2020
Background
Mukadien Moultrie brought this civil action while incarcerated at the North Infirmary Command on Rikers Island and proceeded without a lawyer. The opinion does not address the underlying claims against the New York City Department of Correction.
A prisoner who wants to bring a civil action without paying the fees in advance must submit an application for permission to proceed without prepayment and a signed prisoner authorization. If permission is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires collection of the $350 filing fee through installment deductions from the prisoner's account. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that permission. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to send the court certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months.
Court's Order
Moultrie submitted a prisoner authorization that was blank and unsigned. The court ordered him, within 30 days of the order, either to pay the full $400 in fees or to complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 20-CV-2852 (CM).
The court directed the Clerk to mail Moultrie a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. If Moultrie 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.
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 order also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.