Johnson v. Department of Corrections
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-09403
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Johnson v. Brann, Judge McMahon ordered the incarcerated plaintiff to pay fees or request permission to proceed without prepaying them.
Christopher Johnson, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, had to meet the court’s payment or fee-waiver requirements for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Johnson v. Brann, Christopher Johnson filed a civil action while incarcerated and did not submit the required filing fees, application, or authorization forms.
The court gave Johnson 30 days to pay $400 or submit completed forms requesting permission to proceed without prepaying fees and authorizing installment payments from his account.
Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk to mail the order, stopped a summons from issuing for now, and warned that the case would be dismissed if Johnson did not comply; the court also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Johnson v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-09403
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 14, 2020
Background
Christopher Johnson, who was incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center, filed this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Johnson had filed the complaint with 49 other detainees and that a magistrate judge had severed the claims and directed the Clerk to open separate cases.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit the required application and authorization. If permission to proceed without prepaying fees is granted, the $350 filing fee will be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the previous six months.
The court ordered Johnson, within 30 days of the order, to pay the $400 or submit the completed forms labeled with docket number 20-CV-9403 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and note 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 Johnson complied and would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.