Santiago v. Annucci
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-06391
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Santiago v. Annucci, Judge McMahon ordered Santiago to pay fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization within 30 days.
Heraclio Santiago, who was required to pay the fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization before the action could be processed; the order also addressed any appeal from this order.
What happened
Santiago v. Annucci concerns Heraclio Santiago’s civil action, which he filed without a lawyer while incarcerated. He asked to proceed without paying the fees upfront and submitted the required forms, but his prisoner authorization covered only $150 of the $350 filing fee.
The court gave Santiago 30 days to either pay the full $400 in fees or submit a corrected authorization allowing installment deductions for the full $350 filing fee. The court directed the Clerk to mail him the order, issued no summons, and stated that the action will be dismissed if he does not comply.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying appeal fees. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Santiago v. Annucci · No. 1:20-cv-06391
- Colleen McMahon
- Aug. 14, 2020
Background
Heraclio Santiago brought this civil action while incarcerated at Fishkill Correctional Facility and proceeding without a lawyer. To start a civil case, a prisoner must either pay $400 in fees or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. The $400 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee.
A prisoner who receives permission to proceed without prepaying fees remains responsible for the $350 filing fee, which is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner must submit a signed application and a prisoner authorization allowing the court to withdraw those payments and requiring the facility to provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.
The Court’s Order
Santiago submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization, but the authorization permitted collection of only $150 rather than the full $350 filing fee. The court therefore ordered Santiago, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the full $400 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization allowing collection of the full $350 filing fee. If he submitted the authorization, the court instructed him to label it with docket number 20-CV-6391 (CM).
The Clerk was directed to mail Santiago a copy of the order and note service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Santiago complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Prison Litigation Reform Act Notice
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 proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim could count as a “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). The order did not rule on the merits of Santiago’s claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.