Pham v. Department of Corrections
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-10131
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Pham v. Department of Corrections, Judge McMahon dismissed the complaint without prejudice because Pham neither paid the filing fee nor submitted required forms.
Lam Pham's complaint was dismissed without prejudice because he did not pay the filing fee or submit the required forms. The order also denied fee-free appeal status.
What happened
In Pham v. Department of Corrections, the court had ordered Lam Pham to submit forms requesting permission to proceed without paying the filing fee and authorizing deductions from a prisoner account, or to pay the $400 filing fee. The order gave Pham thirty days to comply.
Pham did not submit the required forms or pay the fee. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling. The court did not address the claims' merits.
Judge Colleen McMahon also denied permission to proceed without paying fees for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Pham v. Department of Corrections · No. 1:20-cv-10131
- Colleen McMahon
- Feb. 11, 2021
Background
The court had previously ordered Lam Pham to submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee and a prisoner authorization, or to pay the $400 required to file a civil action. The order gave Pham thirty days to comply and warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal.
Ruling
The court found that Pham had neither submitted the application and prisoner authorization nor paid the filing fee. It dismissed the complaint without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The opinion does not decide the merits of Pham's claims.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. The clerk was directed to mail Pham a copy of the order and record service on the docket.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.