Boyd v. Department of Corrections
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-09392
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Boyd v. Brann, Judge McMahon ordered Andre Boyd to pay filing fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment, warning the case could be dismissed.
Andre Boyd, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, was required to pay the filing fees or submit forms requesting permission to proceed without prepayment.
What happened
In Boyd v. Commissioner Cynthia Brann, Andre Boyd, 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 them upfront.
The court ordered Boyd, within 30 days, either to pay $400 or submit a signed application and authorization allowing filing-fee installments to be taken from his prisoner account. The court also said no summons would issue at that time and warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal of the action.
Judge Colleen McMahon issued the order and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith. The court did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Boyd v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-09392
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 14, 2020
Background
Andre Boyd, who was incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center, brought this action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he originally filed the complaint with 49 other detainees and that a magistrate judge later severed the claims into separate cases. Boyd submitted his complaint without the required filing fees, a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, or a prisoner authorization.
Fee and filing requirements
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If permission to proceed without prepayment is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the facility to deduct those payments and provide certified account statements for the previous six months.
Order
The court ordered Boyd to comply within 30 days by either paying the $400 or submitting the required application and authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-9392 (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 the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures if Boyd complied and would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time.
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 opinion also cautioned that a later dismissal as frivolous or for failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, and that three such strikes generally bar a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Disposition and scope
This was a procedural order addressing filing fees, permission to proceed without prepayment, and the required prisoner authorization. The court did not rule on the merits of Boyd's claims and did not dismiss the action in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.