Diawara v. Castel
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-03673
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Diawara v. Castel, Chief Judge McMahon ordered Alpha Diawara to pay $400 or submit prisoner forms within 30 days before the case proceeds.
Alpha Diawara, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required $400 or submit the specified forms within 30 days for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Diawara v. Castel, Alpha Diawara filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without prepaying them. The order states that Diawara was incarcerated and representing himself.
The court gave Diawara 30 days to either pay $400 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If approved, the authorization would allow filing-fee payments to be deducted from his prisoner account in installments. No summons would issue at that time, and the action would be dismissed if Diawara did not comply.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk of Court to mail the order to Diawara, denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, and stated that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Diawara v. Castel · No. 1:20-cv-03673
- Colleen McMahon
- May 12, 2020
Background
Alpha Diawara filed this civil action without paying the required fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Diawara was incarcerated at FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania and was proceeding without a lawyer. The caption identifies the defendants as U.S. Judge Kevin P. Castel and other defendants.
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 a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires collection of the $350 filing fee through installments deducted from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the prison facility to provide certified account statements for the preceding six months. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
Within 30 days of the order, Diawara had to either pay the $400 or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-3673 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Diawara and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures if Diawara complied and would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time.
Appeal and prisoner warning
The court 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 prisoner's action dismissed as frivolous or for failure to state a claim counts as a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). After three strikes, a prisoner generally cannot proceed without prepaying fees in a new action unless the prisoner is under imminent danger of serious physical injury, and must pay the filing fee when filing the new action.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.