Johnson v. Department of Corrections
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-10119
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Johnson v. Department of Corrections, Judge McMahon ordered payment or an application to proceed without prepaying fees, warning of dismissal if Johnson did neither.
Dayquan Johnson, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must pay the required fees or submit the specified fee-waiver paperwork within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Johnson v. Department of Corrections, Dayquan Johnson, an incarcerated person representing himself, brought a civil action but did not pay the required fees or submit the paperwork needed to request a fee waiver.
The court gave Johnson 30 days to pay $400 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization allowing installment payments from his account. The court also directed the Clerk to mail him the order and said no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Colleen McMahon warned that the action would be dismissed if Johnson did not comply. The order did not decide the claims’ merits and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Johnson v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-10119
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 3, 2020
Background
Dayquan Johnson, who was incarcerated and proceeding without a lawyer, brought this civil action. The opinion states that he had signed an amended complaint in a prior related proceeding involving claims by detainees, and that his claims were later assigned this separate docket number. He had not paid the filing fees or submitted a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization.
Payment and Fee-Waiver Requirements
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $400 in fees—$350 for filing and $50 for administration—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. To make that request, Johnson had to submit a signed fee-waiver application and a prisoner authorization. The authorization permits the facility where he is incarcerated to withdraw the $350 filing fee from his account in installments and requires submission of certified account statements for the previous six months. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Order
The court ordered Johnson, within 30 days of December 3, 2020, to either pay the $400 in fees or submit the required application and authorization labeled with docket number 20-CV-10119 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that, if Johnson complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Effect
The court certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order was a procedural step concerning payment or waiver of filing fees; it did not decide whether Johnson’s underlying claims were legally valid. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner-filing statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.