Hinton v. The State of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-04252
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Hinton v. State of New York: Judge Swain ordered payment or fee-waiver paperwork within 30 days, warning that noncompliance would lead to dismissal.
George Hinton, who must either pay the required fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Hinton v. The State of New York, George Hinton filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the paperwork needed to ask to proceed without paying them upfront. The court identified him as incarcerated and representing himself.
The court gave Hinton 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit a signed fee-waiver application and authorization allowing installment payments from his account. The order stated that no summons would issue yet and that the case would be processed if he complied.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to mail Hinton the order and warned that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply on time. The court also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Hinton v. The State of New York · No. 1:21-cv-04252
- Laura Swain
- May 12, 2021
Background
George Hinton filed this civil action while incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center and without a lawyer. The opinion states that he originally filed the complaint with other detainees, but the court separated the plaintiffs’ claims and opened them as separate actions. Hinton submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Court’s order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402—the $350 filing fee and $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The authorization also directs the facility to deduct those payments and provide the court with certified account statements for the preceding six months.
The court ordered Hinton, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the required application and authorization labeled with docket number 21-CV-4252 (LTS). The Clerk of Court was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. If Hinton 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.
Other rulings and warnings
The court certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The court also warned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), potentially affecting a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future actions.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on May 12, 2021. The opinion does 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.