Brooks v. Judge of White Plains Criminal Court
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-04473
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Brooks v. Judge of White Plains Criminal Court, Judge Swain gave Brooks 30 more days to pay fees or submit required forms, warning dismissal.
Emanuel Manny Brooks, Jr.; the case was not allowed to proceed until he paid the required fees or submitted the required prisoner forms.
What happened
Emanuel Manny Brooks, Jr. sued the Judge of White Plains Criminal Court while detained in the Westchester County Jail. He filed the case without paying the required fees or submitting forms to request permission to proceed without paying them as a prisoner.
The court had previously given Brooks 30 days to pay the fees or submit the required forms, but he did not comply. The court also received a letter from him that appeared to request an order requiring the defendant to do something, but the court said it could not act on the complaint or letter until Brooks completed the payment or form requirement.
The court gave Brooks an additional 30 days to comply and warned that the case will be dismissed if he does not. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to proceed without paying fees for any appeal from this order and directed the Clerk to mail Brooks a copy of the order.
The detailed version
- Brooks v. Judge of White Plains Criminal Court · No. 1:21-cv-04473
- Laura Swain
- June 28, 2021
Background
Emanuel Manny Brooks, Jr., who was detained in the Westchester County Jail, filed this action without a lawyer. He did not pay the $402 in filing and administrative fees and did not submit an application to proceed without paying the fees or the required prisoner authorization.
The court previously ordered Brooks to do one of those things within 30 days. He did not comply by the deadline. The court later received a letter from Brooks that it described as unclear and that appeared to seek an injunction, meaning an order requiring a party to take or stop taking a specified action. The court stated that it could not act on the complaint or letter until Brooks paid the fees or submitted the required forms.
Ruling
The court granted Brooks an additional 30 days to comply with the earlier order. The forms, if submitted, had to identify docket number 21-CV-4473 (LTS). The court stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s procedures if Brooks complied and would be dismissed if he did not comply within the additional time. No summons would issue at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal. The Clerk was directed to mail Brooks a copy of the order and note service on the docket. The order cautioned that a qualifying dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action can count as a strike under the federal prisoner-fee statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.