Mercado v. Town of Goshen

Background

Matthew Louis Mercado filed this civil action while detained at the Orange County Correctional Facility. The opinion states that he was proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted his complaint without paying the filing fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees or a prisoner authorization.

Fees and required paperwork

The court explained that a prisoner bringing 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 prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The prisoner authorization permits the facility to deduct those payments and requires certified account statements for the previous six months to be sent to the court.

Order

The court ordered Mercado, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 in fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-5399 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The order states that the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures if Mercado complied and that the court would dismiss the action if he did not comply within the allowed time.

The court also 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 opinion additionally cautioned that a later dismissal for being frivolous or malicious, or for failing to state a claim, could count as a statutory “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).