Genao v. City of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-06507
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Genao v. City of New York, Judge McMahon ordered Gabino Genao to pay filing fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
Gabino Genao, whose case could proceed only if he paid the required fees or submitted the completed application within 30 days; the case's processing was also affected.
What happened
In Genao v. City of New York, Gabino Genao, who was detained and had no lawyer, filed a civil lawsuit against the listed defendants. He submitted a prisoner authorization but not a completed application to proceed without prepaying filing fees.
The court gave Genao 30 days to either pay $400 in fees or submit the required application. If approved, the $350 filing fee would be collected from his prison account in installments; the $50 administrative fee would not apply. The court also said that no summons would issue at that time and warned that the case would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Colleen McMahon issued the order on August 25, 2020. She also denied fee-free status for any appeal from the order, finding that such an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Genao v. City of New York · No. 1:20-cv-06507
- Colleen McMahon
- Aug. 25, 2020
Background
Gabino Genao, who was detained at the Manhattan Detention Complex, brought this civil action without a lawyer against the City of New York and the other defendants named in the caption. He submitted a complaint and a prisoner authorization, but he did not submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying filing fees.
Order
The court directed Genao, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the required $400 in filing fees or submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees. The $400 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. If the court grants the fee application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected through installment deductions from Genao's prison account. The prisoner authorization also directs the facility to provide certified copies of his account statements for the previous six months.
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail Genao 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 Office procedures if Genao complied, but that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time.
Additional Rulings and Warning
Judge Colleen McMahon 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 purposes of an appeal. The court also warned that a prisoner's case dismissed as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a legally sufficient claim can count as a statutory “strike,” and that three such strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.