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S.D.N.Y.Procedural orderFiled Jan. 19, 2022

Morris v. Wolcott

Judge
Paul Engelmayer
Docket
1:22-cv-00052
Court
U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
Pages
2
HabeasPro SeCivil Procedure
In one sentence

In Morris v. Wolcott, Judge Swain ordered Keith Morris to pay the fee or submit an IFP application within 30 days.

Who this affects

Keith Morris must either pay the $5.00 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days; otherwise, the action will be dismissed. Julie Wolcott was not required to answer at this time.

What happened

In Morris v. Wolcott, Keith Morris filed a habeas petition without paying the $5 filing fee or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.

The court ordered Morris, within 30 days, to either pay the fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepayment. No response from Julie Wolcott was required at that time, and the case would be processed if Morris complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
Morris v. Wolcott · No. 1:22-cv-00052
Judge
Paul Engelmayer
Date
Jan. 19, 2022

Background

Keith Morris, representing himself, filed a petition asking for habeas corpus relief. The opinion states that he submitted the petition without the required $5.00 filing fee and without an application to proceed without prepaying fees.

Order

The court ordered Morris to take one of two actions within 30 days of the order: pay the $5.00 filing fee or complete and submit the attached application to proceed without prepayment of fees. If the court grants that application, Morris may proceed without paying the fee in advance. The application was to identify docket number 22-CV-0052 (LTS).

The court stated that no answer from Julie Wolcott was required at that time. If Morris complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures. If he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.

Appeal and disposition

The court certified that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The Clerk of Court was directed to mail the order to Morris and record service on the docket. This opinion is a procedural order addressing the filing fee or fee-waiver application; it does not decide the underlying habeas petition.

The authoritative version

Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

Open opinion PDF →
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