Adderley v. Brann
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-07777
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Adderley v. Brann, Judge McMahon ordered Aaron Adderley to pay filing fees or submit required forms to continue his case.
Aaron Adderley, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the required forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Adderley v. Brann, Aaron Adderley, who was incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying the fees upfront.
The court gave Adderley 30 days to either pay $400 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment and a prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow filing-fee payments to be deducted from his account in installments. The court also said no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the Clerk to mail the order to Adderley and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order said the action would be dismissed if Adderley did not comply within the allowed time.
The detailed version
- Adderley v. Brann · No. 1:20-cv-07777
- Colleen McMahon
- Sept. 22, 2020
Background
Aaron Adderley filed this civil action while incarcerated at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island and proceeding without a lawyer. The opinion states that his claims had been separated from a complaint filed by several detainees and opened as this new civil action. Adderley submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees or a prisoner authorization.
Required payment or application
The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees, commonly called an IFP application, and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the IFP application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and send the court certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the prior six months.
The court ordered Adderley, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 in fees or submit the required IFP application and prisoner authorization. The documents were to identify docket number 20-CV-7777 (CM). The court stated that, if Adderley complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he did not comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed. No summons was to issue at that time.
Ruling and other instructions
Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk of Court to mail Adderley a copy of the order and record service on the docket. The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), and that three such strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding IFP 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.