Spencer El Dey v. Children's Village

Background

Abdullah Spencer-El-Dey filed this action against Children’s Village and Boy Scouts of America while being held at the North Infirmary Command on Rikers Island. He was proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.

Fee and Authorization Requirements

The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400 to begin a civil action—$350 for the filing fee and $50 for the administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees and a signed prisoner authorization. If the court grants the fee-waiver application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s trust account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to send the court certified copies of the prisoner’s trust-account statements for the prior six months. The $50 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.

Order

The court ordered Spencer-El-Dey, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 1:20-CV-10377 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him a copy of the order and note service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time.

The order states that, if Spencer-El-Dey complies, the action will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he fails to comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The court also 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 court cautioned that certain dismissals of prisoner lawsuits can count as “strikes” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).