Banks v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-08791
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Banks v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Judge McMahon granted an extension to appeal but denied fee-free appeal status.
Christopher Banks received more time to file a notice of appeal, but he was denied fee-free status for an appeal from this order. The opinion does not state that the defendants were required to take any action.
What happened
Banks v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision involved Christopher Banks, who filed the action without a lawyer. The court had previously dismissed the action after Banks did not submit a fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization or pay the filing fees.
Banks later asked for more time to file a notice of appeal. He said he first learned about the case on January 25, 2021, and completed his extension request two days later.
Judge Colleen McMahon granted the motion because Banks showed good cause for the late filing. The court also ruled that any appeal from this order would not qualify for fee-free status.
The detailed version
- Banks v. New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision · No. 1:20-cv-08791
- Colleen McMahon
- Mar. 18, 2021
Background
Christopher Banks filed the action without a lawyer. On October 26, 2020, the court directed him to submit an application to proceed without paying filing fees and an authorization required from a prisoner, or to pay the filing fees. After he did neither, the court dismissed the action on January 5, 2021, and the Clerk entered judgment on January 6, 2021.
Motion for More Time
On February 18, 2021, the court received Banks’s notice of appeal and his motion for an extension of time to file it. Under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4, a civil notice of appeal generally must be filed within 30 days after judgment. A district court may extend that deadline when the request is timely and the party shows good cause or excusable neglect.
Banks’s motion did not discuss the timeliness of his notice of appeal. Instead, he stated that he had not submitted a complaint in 2020 and had not known he was a party to this case before receiving a dismissal notice. His motion was dated January 27, 2021. Because Banks said he first learned of the action on January 25 and prepared the extension request two days later, the court found good cause for the late filing.
Ruling
Judge Colleen McMahon granted Banks’s motion for an extension of time to file a notice of appeal. The Clerk was directed to mail him a copy of the order and record service on the docket.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied fee-free status for an appeal from this order. The opinion does not decide the underlying claims in the dismissed action.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.