Martinez v. Department of Corrections
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-09422
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Martinez v. Department of Corrections, Judge McMahon ordered Jonathan Martinez to pay fees or submit forms within 30 days, or face dismissal.
Jonathan Martinez, a prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit the required forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
Martinez v. Department of Corrections concerns Jonathan Martinez’s pro se civil action, which he filed without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request payment without prepaying. The court noted that his claims had been separated from a complaint filed with 49 other detainees.
The court gave Martinez 30 days to either pay $400 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment and an authorization allowing installment deductions from his account. The court also said no summons would issue at that time and that the case would be processed if he complied.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the payment or forms and stated that the action would be dismissed if Martinez did not comply. She also denied payment without prepayment for an appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Martinez v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-09422
- Colleen McMahon
- Nov. 19, 2020
Background
Jonathan Martinez filed this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that he was incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center on Rikers Island. He filed the complaint with 49 other detainees, and a magistrate judge had previously severed the claims and directed the Clerk of Court to open separate cases for each plaintiff.
Martinez submitted his complaint without paying the filing fees and without completing an application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without paying the fees in advance. He also did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Payment and IFP requirements
The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected through installment deductions from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also requires the facility to send the court certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months.
Order
The court ordered Martinez, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 in fees or submit the completed application and prisoner authorization. The documents were to identify docket number 20-CV-9422 (CM). No summons would issue at that time. If Martinez complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Colleen McMahon also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied Martinez permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The court cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the federal prisoner-litigation statute, but this order did not decide whether Martinez’s claims were legally sufficient.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.