Flores v. Department of Corrections
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-10122
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Flores v. Department of Corrections, Judge McMahon ordered Jose Flores to submit fees or applications and an original signature.
Jose Flores, who was required to address the filing-fee, prisoner-authorization, and signature requirements before the action could proceed.
What happened
Flores v. Department of Corrections concerns Jose Flores’s federal civil action after his claims were separated from an earlier related proceeding. He is representing himself and had not paid the required fees, submitted the required forms, or signed the complaint.
The court gave Flores 30 days to either pay $400 or submit a signed application to proceed without paying fees upfront and a prisoner authorization. He also had to submit a signed declaration correcting the missing signature on his complaint.
Judge McMahon ordered that no summons issue yet and said the case would be processed if Flores complied, but dismissed if he did not. The court also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Flores v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-10122
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 4, 2020
Background
Jose Flores, who was being held at the Vernon C. Bain Center, brought this action without a lawyer. He had been listed as a plaintiff in an earlier related proceeding, but had not paid the fees required to bring a federal civil action, submitted a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, or signed the amended complaint. A magistrate judge had separated the claims of 13 prisoners into individual actions, and Flores’s claims were assigned this docket number.
Fees and required forms
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400 in filing and administrative fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.
The court ordered Flores, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 or complete, sign, and submit the application and prisoner authorization. The court also cautioned that certain dismissals can count as “strikes” under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, potentially affecting a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in later federal civil actions.
Signature requirement and disposition
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(a) requires an unrepresented party to personally sign pleadings and other papers. The court ordered Flores, within the same 30-day period, to complete, sign, and submit the attached declaration to cure his failure to sign the complaint.
The Clerk was directed to mail Flores a copy of the order and record service. No summons was to issue at that time. The order states that the action would be processed if Flores complied and would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.