Golding v. DHS/ICE
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:20-cv-08679
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Golding v. DHS/ICE, Judge McMahon ordered Karim Golding to pay fees or submit fee-waiver paperwork within 30 days.
Karim Golding, a prisoner representing himself, was required to pay the filing fees or submit an application and authorization to proceed without prepaying them. The action could be dismissed if he did not comply within 30 days.
What happened
Golding v. DHS/ICE concerns Karim Golding’s transferred civil-rights claims about events during his detention at a Manhattan facility. He filed the case without a lawyer and had previously been allowed to proceed without paying fees in another federal court.
The court explained that the transferred claims became a new case, so Golding had to pay $400 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and permission to deduct the filing fee from his prisoner account. The court gave him 30 days to comply.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the Clerk to mail the order to Golding and said no summons would issue yet. The order warned that the case would be dismissed if Golding did not comply, and denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Golding v. DHS/ICE · No. 1:20-cv-08679
- Vernon Broderick
- Oct. 30, 2020
Background
Karim Golding filed a civil-rights complaint without a lawyer while he was a prisoner. The complaint asserted claims under a federal constitutional cause of action recognized in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, concerning events during his detention at a facility on Varick Street in Manhattan.
An earlier federal court directed that Golding’s claims against Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Max Gorelick be separated and transferred to another federal district. That court dismissed Golding’s remaining claims for failure to state a claim. The Eastern District of New York later transferred this action to the Southern District of New York because the facility was in Manhattan. This order addressed the filing requirements for the transferred action; it did not decide the merits of the claims against Agent Gorelick.
Filing-fee requirement
The court explained that separated claims become an independent civil action. Although Golding had been allowed to proceed without prepaying fees in the earlier federal proceeding, he had to pay the fees for this new action or request that status again.
The required payment was $400: a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. A prisoner seeking permission to proceed without prepaying fees must submit a signed application and a prisoner authorization. The authorization permits deductions from the prisoner’s account in installments and requires submission of certified account statements for the previous six months. If the court grants that status, the $50 administrative fee does not apply, but the $350 filing fee remains payable in installments.
Order
Within 30 days of the order, Golding had to either pay the $400 or submit the required application and prisoner authorization under docket number 20-CV-8679 (CM). The Clerk 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 Golding complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the permitted time, the court would dismiss the action. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order did not itself dismiss the action.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.