Jayne v. Petrucci
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-06067
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Jayne v. Petrucci, Judge McMahon ordered the self-represented petitioner to pay $5 or submit a fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Ma Jayne must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed. The respondents were not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
In Jayne v. Petrucci, Ma Jayne filed a petition asking for a writ of habeas corpus, but did not pay the $5 filing fee or submit an application to proceed without paying fees upfront.
The court gave Jayne 30 days to pay the fee or submit a signed fee-waiver application. No response from the respondents was required yet. If Jayne does not comply, the action will be dismissed; if Jayne complies, the clerk’s office will process the case under its usual procedures.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the substance of Jayne’s petition.
The detailed version
- Jayne v. Petrucci · No. 1:20-cv-06067
- Colleen McMahon
- Aug. 6, 2020
Background
Ma Jayne, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against John Petrucci and other respondents. The petition was submitted without the required $5 filing fee and without an application to proceed in forma pauperis (without prepaying court fees).
Order
The court ordered Jayne, within 30 days of August 6, 2020, to either pay the $5 filing fee or complete, sign, and submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying fees. The application was to identify docket number 20-CV-6067 (CM). The court explained that, if it granted the application, Jayne could proceed without prepaying fees.
The court directed the clerk to mail the order to Jayne and record service on the docket. No answer from the respondents was required at that stage. If Jayne complied, the case would be processed under the clerk’s office procedures. If Jayne failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Disposition and effect
This was a procedural order addressing the filing fee or fee-waiver application; it did not reach the merits of the habeas petition. The court 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 for that appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.