Lesane v. Doe 1

Background

Steven Lesane, who was detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying court fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.

Required filing or payment

The court explained that a prisoner bringing a civil action must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepayment. A prisoner who receives that permission must generally pay the $350 filing fee in installments deducted from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization allows the facility to make those deductions and requires certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months to be sent to the court.

The court ordered Lesane, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 21-CV-4746 (LTS). If he complied, the case would be processed under the clerk’s procedures. If he failed to comply within the allotted time, the action would be dismissed. The clerk was directed to mail the order to Lesane and record service on the docket. No summons would issue at that time.

Other rulings and effect

The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order also cautioned that a future dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim can count as a statutory “strike,” and that three such strikes generally limit a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees, subject to the statutory exception for imminent danger of serious physical injury. The court did not decide the merits of Lesane’s claims.