Jackson v. Pagan
- Vincent Briccetti
- 7:20-cv-05176
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Jackson v. Pagan, Chief Judge McMahon ordered prisoner Thomas Jackson to pay fees or submit a corrected authorization within 30 days.
Thomas Jackson, the incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Jackson v. Pagan, Thomas Jackson, who is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility and is representing himself, submitted an application to proceed without paying court fees upfront and a prisoner authorization.
The court found that the authorization did not clearly allow prison officials to withdraw the $350 filing fee from Jackson’s account. The court gave him 30 days to either pay $400 in fees or submit a completed authorization using the attached form and the case docket number.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the Clerk to mail Jackson the order and stated that no summons would issue yet. The case will proceed if Jackson complies; if he does not, the action will be dismissed. The court also denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Jackson v. Pagan · No. 7:20-cv-05176
- Vincent Briccetti
- July 8, 2020
Background
Thomas Jackson, who is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility, brought this action without a lawyer against Sergeant E. Pagan. Jackson submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying court fees, along with a prisoner authorization.
Issue
A prisoner seeking to proceed without prepaying fees must authorize the court to collect the $350 filing fee from the prisoner’s account in installments. The authorization must also direct the correctional facility to provide certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the previous six months. Jackson’s authorization did not specify that the court could collect the $350 filing fee from his prison account.
Order
The court ordered Jackson, within 30 days of the order, either to pay $400 in fees or to complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization. The $400 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee; the administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status. If Jackson submits the authorization, it must identify docket number 20-CV-5176 (CM).
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail Jackson a copy of the order 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 Jackson complied and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the deadline.
The court certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal for being frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim could count as a statutory “strike” affecting Jackson’s ability to proceed IFP in future prisoner cases.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.