Gibson v. Unknown Male patients & Social Workers
Gibson v. Unknown Male patients & Social Workers, Doctors, Administrators, Nurses etc of Lawrence Nursing
- Louis Stanton
- 1:19-cv-00204
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Gibson v. Employees, Judge McMahon granted reconsideration, vacated the dismissal judgment, and gave Gibson 30 days to pay $400.
Bennie Gibson’s case was reopened after the court vacated the February 3, 2020 dismissal judgment, but he was required to pay $400 within 30 days or face another dismissal without prejudice. The court also denied payment-free status for an appeal.
What happened
Bennie Gibson sued employees and supervisors of Doctors Nurses East Elmhurst Hospital, among others, without a lawyer. The court had denied his request to proceed without paying filing fees because it found that 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g) barred him from proceeding without paying, and Gibson had not paid the required fees.
Gibson later asked for more than five additional days to pay. The court treated his letter as a request to change or reconsider the judgment that had dismissed the action without prejudice. Before this order, Gibson had also filed a notice of appeal.
Judge Colleen McMahon granted the motion, vacated the February 3, 2020 judgment, and gave Gibson 30 days to pay $400 to bring the action. The court stated that it would not grant another extension and denied payment-free status for any appeal because it certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Gibson v. Unknown Male patients & Social Workers · No. 1:19-cv-00204
- Louis Stanton
- June 23, 2020
Background
Bennie Gibson filed this action without a lawyer. The court stated that he began the case while held on Rikers Island and was later released. In an order dated December 23, 2019, the court denied Gibson’s amended application to proceed without paying filing fees. It concluded that 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g) barred him from proceeding without paying those fees. The court gave him 30 days to pay and warned that failure to do so would result in dismissal without prejudice.
Gibson requested additional time in a January 23, 2020 letter, but he did not pay the fees before the court entered a February 3, 2020 judgment dismissing the action without prejudice. In a February 12, 2020 letter, Gibson requested more than five additional days to pay and stated that he should have been allowed to proceed without paying. He filed a notice of appeal on February 24, 2020.
Motion and ruling
The court construed Gibson’s February 12 letter as both a motion to alter or amend the judgment under Rule 59(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and a motion for reconsideration under Local Civil Rule 6.3. Judge Colleen McMahon granted the motion and vacated the February 3, 2020 judgment.
The court granted Gibson 30 days to pay the $400 filing fees. It stated that it would not grant any further extensions. If Gibson did not pay within that period, the court would enter judgment dismissing the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Appeal-related ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied payment-free status for purposes of an appeal.
Disposition
The motion to alter or amend and for reconsideration was granted. The February 3, 2020 judgment was vacated, and Gibson received 30 days to pay the $400 filing fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.