Sabino v. Port Authority Police Department
- John Koeltl
- 1:21-cv-05731
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Sabino v. Port Authority Police Department, Judge Swain ordered Saul Sabino to pay fees or submit correct forms before the case proceeds.
Saul Sabino, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit corrected forms for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Sabino v. Port Authority Police Department, Saul Sabino, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action. His application to proceed without paying fees in advance and his prisoner authorization were labeled for a different court.
The court gave Sabino 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit the attached corrected forms, labeled with docket number 21-CV-5731 (LTS). The court directed the Clerk to mail him the order, and no summons would issue at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the case would be processed if Sabino complied and would be dismissed if he did not. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Sabino v. Port Authority Police Department · No. 1:21-cv-05731
- John Koeltl
- July 2, 2021
Background
Saul Sabino, who is incarcerated at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island, brought this civil action without a lawyer. The opinion states that the matter had been transferred from another federal district court. Sabino submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization, but those documents were captioned for a different court.
Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action 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 the application, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The administrative fee does not apply to a person granted this status.
The court ordered Sabino, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the attached application and authorization forms, labeled with docket number 21-CV-5731 (LTS). The Clerk was directed to mail him the order and record service on the docket. No summons was to issue at that time. The order states that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures if Sabino complied and would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time.
Other Ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain 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 opinion also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a filing “strike” under the prisoner-filing statute, but the order did not make such a dismissal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.