Batts v. Department of Corrections
- Andrew Carter
- 1:20-cv-09406
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Batts v. Brann, Judge McMahon ordered Darius Batts to pay fees or submit prisoner forms, warning the case would be dismissed for noncompliance.
Darius Batts was required to pay the fees or submit the specified prisoner forms within 30 days; otherwise, the action would be dismissed. The order also controlled whether the case would proceed and whether a summons would issue.
What happened
In Batts v. Commissioner Cynthia Brann, Darius Batts filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to ask to proceed without paying them upfront.
The court gave Batts 30 days to either pay $400 or submit a signed application and authorization allowing installment deductions from his prisoner account. The court also directed the Clerk to mail him the order, and no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered that the case would be processed if Batts complied and would be dismissed if he did not. She also denied payment-free status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Batts v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-09406
- Andrew Carter
- Nov. 18, 2020
Background
Darius Batts filed this civil action while detained in the Vernon C. Bain Center on Rikers Island and proceeded 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 Batts originally filed the complaint with 49 other detainees, after which a magistrate judge severed the claims and directed the Clerk to open separate cases.
Fees and required forms
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 the required application and authorization. If the court grants the application, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the detention facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.
Ruling
The court ordered Batts, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 or submit the application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 20-CV-9406 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed if Batts complied and would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed period.
Judge Colleen McMahon certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied payment-free status for purposes of an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims in Batts's civil action. It also warned that a later dismissal on specified grounds, such as frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim, could count as a strike under the prisoner litigation statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.