Horne v. Brann
- Jesse Furman
- 1:21-cv-02630
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Horne v. Brann, Judge McMahon ordered Danny Horne to pay filing fees or submit paperwork to proceed without prepayment and denied appeal fee-free status.
Danny Horne, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the specified application and prisoner authorization for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Horne v. Brann, Danny Horne, who was incarcerated and representing himself, submitted a civil complaint without paying the required fees or completing the forms needed to request permission to proceed without prepayment.
The court gave Horne 30 days to pay $402 or submit a signed application and authorization allowing installment payments from his prison account. No summons would issue at that time, and the court warned that failing to comply would result in dismissal.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Horne v. Brann · No. 1:21-cv-02630
- Jesse Furman
- Mar. 30, 2021
Background
Danny Horne filed a civil action while incarcerated in the Vernon C. Bain Center and proceeded without a lawyer. The complaint named Cynthia Brann, identified as the New York City Department of Correction Commissioner, and other defendants. Horne submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepayment or the required prisoner authorization.
Payment or application requirement
The court explained that a prisoner starting a civil action must either pay $402—$350 for the filing fee and $52 for the administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepayment, commonly called an IFP application, together with a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the prior six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepayment.
Order
The court ordered Horne, within 30 days of March 30, 2021, either to pay the $402 in fees or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization labeled with the case docket number. The Clerk was directed to mail Horne a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time. If Horne complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Colleen McMahon certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepayment for purposes of an appeal. The order did not address the merits of Horne’s claims. It also cautioned that a later dismissal as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under federal law, affecting a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepayment in future cases.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.