Jenkins v. The State of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-04267
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Jenkins v. State of New York, Judge Swain ordered Sefton Jenkins to pay fees or submit forms to proceed, warning the case could be dismissed.
Sefton Jenkins, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the specified forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Jenkins v. The State of New York, Sefton Jenkins, who is incarcerated and representing himself, sued the State of New York and the Department of Correction without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Jenkins 30 days from the order date to either pay $402 or submit a signed fee-waiver application and authorization for prison-account deductions. If he does not comply within that time, the action will be dismissed. No summons will be issued yet.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to mail Jenkins the order and record service. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Jenkins v. The State of New York · No. 1:21-cv-04267
- Laura Swain
- May 13, 2021
Background
Sefton Jenkins filed this civil action against the State of New York and the Department of Correction. The opinion states that Jenkins is incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center and is representing himself. He filed the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or the required authorization for deductions from his prison account. The court had separated Jenkins’s claims from claims filed with other detainees and opened them as separate actions.
Required filing-fee steps
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $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 must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that status.
Ruling and deadlines
Within 30 days of the order, Jenkins must either pay the $402 or submit the required application and authorization, labeled with docket number 21-CV-4267 (LTS). Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to mail Jenkins a copy of the order and note service on the docket. No summons will issue at this time. The order states that if Jenkins does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Additional warning
The court cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a statutory “strike” against a prisoner under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). Three such strikes can limit a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future actions, subject to the statutory exception for imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.