Garcia v. Shavi
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:21-cv-00627
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Garcia v. Shavi, Judge McMahon ordered Garcia to pay fees or submit prisoner forms within 30 days.
Daniel Garcia, the incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer; the order also concerns the facility that would process authorized deductions from his prison account.
What happened
In Garcia v. Shavi, Daniel Garcia, who was incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the required forms to proceed without paying them upfront.
The court gave Garcia 30 days to either pay $400 or submit a signed application and authorization allowing filing-fee payments to be deducted from his prison account. The court also directed the Clerk to mail him the order, and no summons would issue at that time. If Garcia did not comply, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Colleen McMahon ordered Garcia to meet one of those filing requirements and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for any appeal from the order, certifying that such an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Garcia v. Shavi · No. 1:21-cv-00627
- Colleen McMahon
- Feb. 12, 2021
Background
Daniel Garcia filed this civil action while incarcerated at Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward and proceeding without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $400 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $50 administrative fee—or submit the forms needed to request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The prisoner authorization also directs the incarceration facility to make those deductions and provide the court with certified account statements covering the previous six months.
The court ordered Garcia, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $400 or submit the attached fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 21-CV-0627 (CM). The Clerk was directed to mail Garcia a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The order states that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures if Garcia complied and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed time.
Appeal and Prisoner-Filing Warning
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 proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal of a prisoner’s action as frivolous or for failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), and that three such strikes generally prevent a prisoner from filing new actions without prepaying fees unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
What the Order Did Not Decide
The opinion addressed filing fees and required forms. It did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.