Annarumma v. Homeland Security Investigation
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00432
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Annarumma v. Homeland Security Investigation, Judge Swain ordered the incarcerated plaintiff to pay fees or submit authorization within 30 days.
Guerino Mario Annarumma, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit the required prisoner authorization within 30 days for the action to proceed.
What happened
Guerino Mario Annarumma sued Homeland Security Investigation and others while incarcerated and without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Annarumma, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or to submit the prisoner authorization. That authorization would allow installments of the $350 filing fee to be deducted from his prisoner account and would require certified account statements for the previous six months. The court also said no summons would issue at that time.
If Annarumma complies, the case will be processed by the Clerk’s Office; if he does not, the action will be dismissed. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Annarumma v. Homeland Security Investigation · No. 1:22-cv-00432
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 10, 2022
Background
Guerino Mario Annarumma, who is incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility, brought this action without a lawyer. To begin a civil action in federal court, a prisoner must either pay the required fees or request permission to proceed without prepaying them. The court explained that the total fees are $402: a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee.
Annarumma submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization. Under the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act, a prisoner who proceeds without prepaying the filing fee must authorize deductions from the prisoner’s account in installments and provide certified account statements for the previous six months.
Court’s Order
The court ordered Annarumma to do one of two things within 30 days of the order: pay the $402 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 22-CV-0432 (LTS). The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees, but the $350 filing fee remains subject to collection in installments.
No summons would issue at that time. If Annarumma complied with the order, 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 certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal.
The order warned that certain dismissals of prisoner actions or appeals may count as “strikes” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). After three such strikes, a prisoner generally cannot proceed without prepaying fees in a new federal civil action unless the imminent-danger exception applies. The opinion did not decide the merits of Annarumma’s underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.