Williams v. Barometre
- Kenneth Karas
- 7:20-cv-07644
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Ozan Williams v. Delta Barometre, Judge McMahon ordered a prisoner to correct his payment authorization or pay filing fees before the case could proceed.
Ozan Williams, a self-represented incarcerated plaintiff, must either pay the required fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Ozan Williams v. Delta Barometre, Ozan Williams, who was incarcerated and representing himself, submitted a request to proceed without paying court fees upfront and a prisoner authorization.
The authorization did not state the amount the court could collect from his prison account. The court gave Williams 30 days to pay the $400 in fees or submit a corrected authorization. It said the action would be dismissed if he did not comply, and no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that an appeal from the order could not proceed without prepayment of appeal fees because it would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Barometre · No. 7:20-cv-07644
- Kenneth Karas
- Sept. 17, 2020
Background
Ozan Williams brought the action while incarcerated at Otisville Correctional Facility and represented himself. To begin a civil case, a prisoner must either pay the required fees or request permission to proceed without prepaying them. That request is commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis, or IFP.
Williams submitted an IFP application and a prisoner authorization. The authorization was supposed to allow the court to collect the $350 filing fee from his prison account in installments and obtain certified account statements for the previous six months. The court found that the authorization did not specify the amount in fees that could be collected. The order also explained that the separate $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
Order
The court ordered Williams, within 30 days, to either pay $400 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-7644 (CM). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Williams complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures, but if he failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Colleen McMahon certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not reach the merits of Williams’s underlying claims. It also cautioned that a later dismissal as frivolous or for failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner litigation statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.