Thomas v. N.Y. Department of Corrections Community Supervision
- Nelson Roman
- 7:20-cv-09709
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Thomas v. N.Y. Department Corrections Community Supervision, Judge McMahon ordered Steven B. Thomas to pay fees or submit authorization to proceed without prepayment.
Steven B. Thomas, who must either pay the required fees or submit a prisoner authorization within 30 days for the action to proceed.
What happened
Steven B. Thomas sued N.Y. Department Corrections Community Supervision and others while incarcerated and without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court gave Thomas 30 days to either pay $400 in fees or submit the authorization. The authorization would allow installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prison account and require account records from the past six months.
Judge McMahon ordered the Clerk to mail the order to Thomas and said no summons would issue yet. The court said the case would proceed if Thomas complied, but would be dismissed if he did not; it also denied fee-free status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Thomas v. N.Y. Department of Corrections Community Supervision · No. 7:20-cv-09709
- Nelson Roman
- Nov. 20, 2020
Background
Steven B. Thomas, who was incarcerated at Woodbourne Correctional Facility, brought this civil action without a lawyer. To proceed without paying court fees upfront, a prisoner must submit a signed application for permission to proceed without prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. The authorization permits the court to collect the $350 filing fee in installments from the prisoner's account and requires certified account statements for the previous six months.
Thomas submitted the fee-waiver application but not the prisoner authorization. The court explained that the total fees were $400: a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee. The administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepayment of fees.
Order
The court ordered Thomas, within 30 days, to either pay the $400 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 20-CV-9709 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time.
The order states that, if Thomas 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 that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepayment of fees for an appeal. The order cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner litigation statute, and that three strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Disposition
This was an order requiring completion of filing-fee procedures; it did not decide the underlying claims. Judge Colleen McMahon directed Thomas to pay the fees or submit the authorization and warned that noncompliance would result in dismissal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.