Van Orden v. City of Port Jervis - PD
- Philip Halpern
- 7:20-cv-07207
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
VanOrden v. City of Port Jervis - PD: Judge McMahon required payment or a fee-waiver application within 30 days before the case could proceed.
Robert Allen VanOrden III, an incarcerated self-represented plaintiff who had to pay the filing fees or submit the required fee-waiver materials before the action could proceed.
What happened
In Robert Allen VanOrden III v. City of Port Jervis - PD, the court said the incarcerated, self-represented plaintiff had not paid the required fees or submitted the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying upfront.
The court gave him 30 days to pay $400 or submit a signed fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization. It said the case would be dismissed if he did not comply, and no summons would issue at that time.
Judge McMahon also denied fee-waiver status for an appeal by certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order warned that a later dismissal for certain reasons could count as a strike under federal law.
The detailed version
- Van Orden v. City of Port Jervis - PD · No. 7:20-cv-07207
- Philip Halpern
- Sept. 4, 2020
Background
Robert Allen VanOrden III, who the opinion says was incarcerated in the Orange County Jail, filed this civil action without a lawyer. He did not pay the required fees and did not submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
The payment and filing requirements
The court explained that a prisoner starting a civil action must either pay $400 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $50 for the administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court approves the fee-waiver application, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to deduct those payments and provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Ruling and next steps
The court ordered VanOrden to take one of those two actions within 30 days of the order: pay the $400 or submit the required application and authorization labeled with docket number 20-CV-7207 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. If he complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
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 therefore denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The court also cautioned that if a prisoner later files a federal civil action that is dismissed as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim, the dismissal may count as a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). After three strikes, a prisoner generally cannot proceed without prepaying fees as a prisoner unless an imminent danger of serious physical injury is alleged.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.