Mercado v. Town of Goshen

Background

Matthew Louis Mercado, who was detained at the Orange County Correctional Facility, brought this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.

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 an application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without prepaying the fees. If that application is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.

Order

The court ordered Mercado, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 in fees or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization. The order states that the documents should be labeled with docket number 20-CV-5399 (CM), although the case caption identifies the action as 20-CV-5389 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail Mercado a copy of the order and note service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time.

Judge Colleen McMahon stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures if Mercado complied and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the permitted 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 fee-free status for an appeal. The opinion additionally cautioned that certain future dismissals of a prisoner's federal civil actions could count as strikes under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).