Renaud v. Trump
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-09248
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Renaud v. Trump, Judge McMahon ordered Stephen-Philbert Renaud to pay fees or submit fee-waiver documents within 30 days.
Stephen-Philbert Renaud, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer; the action would be dismissed if he did not pay the fees or submit the required forms within 30 days.
What happened
Renaud v. Trump concerns Stephen-Philbert Renaud’s complaint, which he filed without a lawyer and without paying the required fees or submitting the required forms to proceed without prepaying them.
The court ordered Renaud, within 30 days, either to pay $400 or submit a completed application and authorization allowing installment payments from his account. The court directed the clerk to mail the order, and no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal of the action. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Renaud v. Trump · No. 1:20-cv-09248
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 12, 2020
Background
Stephen-Philbert Renaud, who was incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility, filed this action without a lawyer. The opinion identifies the defendants as Donld Trump, John Roberts, Jr., Nancy Pelosi, Charles Grassley, William Barr, and the United States of America.
Renaud submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization. The court explained that the ordinary fees were $400: a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. If a prisoner is allowed to proceed without prepaying fees, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization permits those withdrawals and requires certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months.
Order
The court ordered Renaud, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $400 in fees, or submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying fees and the prisoner authorization. The documents were to identify docket number 20-CV-9248 (CM).
The clerk was directed to mail Renaud a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Renaud complied, the case would be processed under the clerk’s procedures; if he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Prisoner-Filing Warning
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), limiting a prisoner’s ability to file future actions without prepaying fees after three strikes, unless the prisoner faced imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Disposition
This was a procedural order addressing payment of filing fees and the required forms, not the legal merits of Renaud’s complaint.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.