Smith v. Department of Corrections
- Ronnie Abrams
- 1:20-cv-09501
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Smith v. Brann, Judge McMahon ordered Willie Smith to pay filing fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment.
Willie Smith, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, was required to pay the fees or submit the required application and authorization forms within 30 days. The action could be dismissed if he did not comply.
What happened
In Smith v. Commissioner Cynthia Brann, Willie Smith filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying upfront. The opinion says Smith was incarcerated and represented himself.
The court ordered Smith, within 30 days, either to pay $400 in fees or submit a signed application and authorization allowing installment payments from his account. The court said no summons would issue yet and warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal of the action.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon issued the order on November 17, 2020. She also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying appeal fees.
The detailed version
- Smith v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-09501
- Ronnie Abrams
- Nov. 17, 2020
Background
Willie Smith filed this civil action while incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center and without a lawyer. The opinion states that Smith originally filed the complaint with 49 other detainees, but a magistrate judge had severed the claims and directed the Clerk of Court to open separate cases.
Smith submitted the complaint without the required fees, a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, or a prisoner authorization. The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400—the $350 filing fee plus the $50 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepayment. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a prisoner granted that status.
Order
The court ordered Smith to do one of two things within 30 days of the order: pay $400 in fees, or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization forms labeled with docket number 20-CV-9501 (CM). The authorization would allow the facility holding Smith to deduct the $350 filing fee in installments and send the court certified copies of his account statements for the previous six months.
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail Smith a copy of the order and note service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Smith 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.
Additional Ruling
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon 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 proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. 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), which can limit a prisoner's ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future actions.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.