Renaud v. Trump
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-01023
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Renaud v. Trump, Chief Judge McMahon ordered the incarcerated plaintiff to pay fees or submit authorization within 30 days.
The order directly affects Stepheh-Philbert Renaud, the incarcerated plaintiff, by requiring him to pay the stated fees or submit a prisoner authorization before the case proceeds.
What happened
In Renaud v. Trump, the incarcerated plaintiff filed the case without a lawyer and submitted an application to proceed without paying the filing fees in advance. He did not submit the required authorization allowing installment deductions from his prison trust account.
The court ordered the plaintiff, within 30 days, either to pay the stated $402 in fees or to complete and submit the prisoner authorization. The order said no summons would issue yet and that the case would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the claims against the defendants.
The detailed version
- Renaud v. Trump · No. 1:21-cv-01023
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 7, 2021
Background
Stepheh-Philbert Renaud, who was incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying the filing fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Fee and authorization requirement
The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay the filing and administrative fees or request permission to proceed without prepayment. If permission is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prison trust account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and to send the court certified copies of the prison trust account statements for the previous six months.
Order
The court ordered Renaud to do one of two things within 30 days: pay the stated $402 in fees, or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 1:21-CV-1023 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. The order stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures if he complied and would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed period.
Chief Judge 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 did not reach the underlying claims. It also cautioned that certain dismissals of prisoner cases can count as “strikes” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), which can limit a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees after three strikes, unless an imminent danger of serious physical injury exists.
Textual inconsistency
The opinion states that the total fees are $402, described as a $350 filing fee plus a $52 administrative fee. A footnote separately refers to a $50 administrative fee. This summary reports both the order’s stated total and the inconsistency in the text.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.