Sisk v. M.C.C.
- Louis Stanton
- 1:20-cv-10293
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Sisk v. MCC, Judge McMahon ordered payment or fee-waiver papers within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed.
George Edward Sisk, who must either pay the required fees or submit the specified fee-waiver and prisoner-authorization forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
George Edward Sisk filed this civil action while incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and without paying the required fees or submitting the required forms. The case is Sisk v. MCC.
The court gave Sisk 30 days to either pay $400 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying fees in advance and a prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment deductions from his account for the $350 filing fee. No summons would issue yet.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the Clerk to mail the order to Sisk and stated that the action will be dismissed if he does not comply on time. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Sisk v. M.C.C. · No. 1:20-cv-10293
- Louis Stanton
- Dec. 8, 2020
Background
George Edward Sisk filed this civil action while incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. He filed the complaint without paying the filing fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Sisk was proceeding without a lawyer.
Payment and fee-waiver requirements
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the fee-waiver application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires collection of the $350 filing fee through installment deductions from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.
Order
The court ordered Sisk to comply within 30 days of the order’s date by either paying the $400 or submitting the required application and authorization forms. The forms were to identify docket number 20-CV-10293 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail Sisk a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures if Sisk complied and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time.
Judge Colleen McMahon certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a qualifying “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.