Lucas v. Office of Mental Health
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-07325
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Lucas v. Office of Mental Health, Judge McMahon dismissed Lucas’s petition without prejudice after he neither paid the fee nor filed the required fee-waiver application.
Troy Lucas’s habeas petition was dismissed without prejudice because he did not submit the required amended fee-waiver application or pay the $5 filing fee. The court also denied permission to proceed without paying fees on appeal.
What happened
Troy Lucas filed a petition against the Office of Mental Health. The opinion does not describe the underlying claim.
The court had ordered Lucas to submit an amended application to waive the filing fee or pay the $5 fee required for a habeas petition. The order warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal, but Lucas did neither.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the petition without prejudice, meaning it may be filed again. She also denied Lucas permission to proceed without paying fees on appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Lucas v. Office of Mental Health · No. 1:20-cv-07325
- Colleen McMahon
- Oct. 13, 2020
Background
Troy Lucas filed a habeas petition against the Office of Mental Health. The opinion does not explain the petition’s underlying allegations or legal claim.
Court’s directive
In an order dated September 9, 2020, the court directed Lucas, within 30 days, either to submit an amended application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $5 filing fee required for a habeas petition. The court warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Lucas did not file an amended fee-waiver application and did not pay the filing fee.
Ruling
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the petition without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The opinion therefore did not reach the merits of Lucas’s habeas petition. The court also certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal.
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Lucas and note service on the docket.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.