Torres v. DuBois
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00209
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Torres v. DuBois, Judge Swain ordered Ricardo D. Torres to pay filing fees or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
Ricardo D. Torres and the continuation of his civil action; the order required him to pay the fees or submit the required application within 30 days.
What happened
In Torres v. DuBois, Ricardo D. Torres filed a civil action while incarcerated and submitted a prisoner authorization, but he did not submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court gave Torres 30 days to either pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit the required application. No summons would issue immediately, and the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal.
The detailed version
- Torres v. DuBois · No. 1:22-cv-00209
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 12, 2022
Background
Ricardo D. Torres, who was incarcerated at the Orange County Correctional Facility and represented himself, filed this civil action. He submitted a prisoner authorization but did not submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying court fees.
Order
The court ordered Torres, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay $402 in fees required to file a civil action, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee, or submit a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees. If the court grants the application, the $350 filing fee must be collected from Torres's account in installments, and the prisoner authorization permits those deductions and requires certified account statements for the previous six months.
No summons would issue at that time. If Torres complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The court also cautioned that certain dismissals of a prisoner's federal action may count as strikes under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
Judge's 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 Torres permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order addressed filing requirements and did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.