Guest v. Department of Corrections City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00972
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Guest v. Department of Corrections City of New York, Judge Swain ordered payment or an application to proceed without fees within 30 days.
Michael Guest, who must pay the required fees or submit the specified IFP documents within 30 days to continue the action.
What happened
Guest v. Department of Corrections City of New York concerns Michael Guest’s civil action, which he filed without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying them upfront. The opinion says Guest is incarcerated and represented himself.
The court gave Guest 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization form. The authorization would allow installment deductions from his account for the $350 filing fee. The court said the action will be dismissed without prejudice if he does not comply, and no summons will issue yet.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on February 3, 2022. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Guest v. Department of Corrections City of New York · No. 1:22-cv-00972
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 3, 2022
Background
Michael Guest filed this civil action while incarcerated and without a lawyer. The opinion states that he originally filed the action with Ruddy Osias and other detainees under a different docket number, and that the court later separated the plaintiffs’ claims into separate actions. Guest’s action was assigned docket number 22-CV-0972.
Guest submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without completing an application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying the fees. The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402—the $350 filing fee and $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed IFP application and a prisoner authorization.
Order
The court ordered Guest, within 30 days of the order, to choose one of two options: pay the $402 in fees, or submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 22-CV-0972. If the court grants IFP status, the prisoner authorization permits installment deductions from Guest’s account toward the $350 filing fee and requires the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the preceding six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
The Clerk of Court was directed to mail Guest a copy of the order and note service on the docket. The court directed that no summons issue at that time. The order states that if Guest fails to comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed without prejudice, meaning the order does not bar a later filing based on that dismissal.
Additional 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. The court therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a statutory “strike” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), but this order did not decide whether Guest’s claims were frivolous or failed to state a claim.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.