Tate v. Department of Corrections

Background

Morris Tate, who was incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He filed 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 Tate had filed the complaint with 49 other detainees and that a magistrate judge had separated the claims into separate cases.

Fee and application requirements

The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400—the $350 filing fee plus a $50 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees by submitting a signed application and a prisoner authorization. If permission is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.

Order

The court ordered Tate to comply within 30 days of the order by either paying the $400 in fees or submitting the attached application and prisoner-authorization forms, labeled with docket number 20-CV-9487 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail Tate a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. If Tate complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.

The court also 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 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), subject to the exception stated in that statute for imminent danger of serious physical injury.