Brown v. City of New York
- Paul Gardephe
- 1:21-cv-04632
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Brown v. City of New York, Judge Swain ordered Paul Brown to pay fees or submit IFP papers, warning dismissal for noncompliance.
Paul Brown, who filed the action without a lawyer and had not paid the required fees or submitted the required IFP paperwork; the order also describes fee and filing requirements applicable to prisoners seeking to proceed without prepaying fees.
What happened
In Brown v. City of New York, Paul Brown filed a civil-rights case without paying the required fees or submitting the paperwork needed to proceed without paying them upfront. The opinion says Brown was incarcerated and represented himself.
The court gave Brown 30 days to either pay $402 or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and authorization for installment deductions from his prison account. The court explained that the filing fee would still be collected in installments if that application were granted.
Judge Swain ordered the Clerk to mail Brown the order and said no summons would issue at that time. The court said the action would be dismissed if Brown did not comply, and denied payment-free status for an appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Brown v. City of New York · No. 1:21-cv-04632
- Paul Gardephe
- May 25, 2021
Background
Paul Brown filed this civil action without paying the required filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Brown was incarcerated in Ulster Correctional Facility and was proceeding without a lawyer. The caption identifies the defendants as the New York City Department of Correction and Rikers Island.
Fees and required paperwork
The court explained that a prisoner starting a civil action must either pay $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application, together with a prisoner authorization. The authorization allows the facility holding the prisoner to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner's account in installments and requires certified account statements for the preceding six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
Order
The court ordered Brown, within 30 days of the order, to pay the $402 in fees or submit the IFP application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 21-CV-4632 (LTS). The Clerk was directed to mail Brown a copy of the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk's procedures if Brown complied and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the allowed period.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner-filing statute, but the opinion did not make such a dismissal in this order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.