Buzaishvili v. Albence
- Loretta Preska
- 1:20-cv-04602
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Buzaishvili v. Albence, Judge Preska ordered the petitioner to pay the $5 filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
Zurab Buzaishvili, who filed the petition without a lawyer, had to pay the $5.00 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment within 30 days, or the action would be dismissed.
What happened
In Buzaishvili v. Albence, Zurab Buzaishvili filed a petition challenging his detention through a court process for people in custody. He was representing himself.
Buzaishvili submitted the petition without paying the $5 filing fee and without submitting an application to proceed without paying the fee upfront. The court gave him 30 days to do one of those things.
Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered the Clerk of Court to mail the order to Buzaishvili and said that no response from the respondents was required yet. The case would be processed if he complied, but the action would be dismissed if he did not. The court also denied permission to appeal without paying fees because it found that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Buzaishvili v. Albence · No. 1:20-cv-04602
- Loretta Preska
- June 19, 2020
Background
Zurab Buzaishvili, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The opinion does not address the substance of his detention-related claims.
Filing-fee requirement
The court explained that a habeas petitioner must either pay the $5.00 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without paying court fees in advance. Buzaishvili submitted neither. The court ordered him, within 30 days after the order's date, to pay the fee or submit the completed application, labeled with docket number 20-CV-4602 (LAP).
If the court grants the application, Buzaishvili may proceed without prepaying the filing fee. The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No answer was required from the respondents at that time. The order states that the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures if Buzaishvili complied, and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time.
Appeal-related ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
What the order did not decide
The order did not decide whether Buzaishvili was entitled to habeas relief or otherwise reach the merits of his petition.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.