Labossiere v. Downstate Correctional Facility
- Kenneth Karas
- 7:21-cv-10538
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Labossiere v. Downstate Correctional Facility, Judge Swain ordered Wilfred Labossiere to pay fees or submit a signed prisoner authorization within 30 days.
Wilfred Labossiere, who must either pay the required fees or submit a signed prisoner authorization for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Labossiere v. Downstate Correctional Facility, Wilfred Labossiere brought a civil case while incarcerated and without a lawyer. He submitted an application to avoid paying the filing fees upfront, along with a prisoner authorization form.
The court found that the authorization form was not signed. It ordered Labossiere, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or submit a completed and signed authorization. No summons would issue yet, and the case would be processed only if he followed the order; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from the order would not qualify for fee-free status. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Labossiere v. Downstate Correctional Facility · No. 7:21-cv-10538
- Kenneth Karas
- Jan. 26, 2022
Background
Wilfred Labossiere brought this civil action while incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and proceeding without a lawyer. A prisoner filing a civil action must either pay the required fees or submit an application to proceed without prepaying them, along with a signed authorization allowing filing-fee payments to be deducted from the prisoner’s account in installments.
Labossiere submitted an application to proceed without prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. The authorization, however, was unsigned.
Order
The court directed Labossiere, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay $402 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee, or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization. The authorization was to include docket number 21-CV-10538 (LTS).
The court directed that no summons issue at that time. If Labossiere complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures. If he did not comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and effect
The court certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for an appeal. The order addressed filing requirements and did not decide the merits of Labossiere’s claims.
Classification
This is a procedural order because it addressed the requirements for proceeding without prepayment of fees and did not resolve the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.