Johnson v. Yonkers City Court
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00049
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Johnson v. Yonkers City Court, Judge Swain ordered Elijah Johnson to pay filing fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization.
Elijah Johnson, also identified as E’JAI BEY, had to pay the required fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization within 30 days. The case would be dismissed if he did not comply.
What happened
In Johnson v. Yonkers City Court, Elijah Johnson, also identified as E’JAI BEY, sued Yonkers City Court and Westchester County Jail. He filed the action without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying the fees upfront, but the authorization he submitted directed payments to the wrong federal court.
The court gave Johnson 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit the attached corrected prisoner authorization labeled with this case’s docket number. The authorization would allow deductions from his prison account for the $350 filing fee. No summons would issue yet, 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 permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Johnson v. Yonkers City Court · No. 1:22-cv-00049
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 10, 2022
Background
Elijah Johnson, also identified as E’JAI BEY, filed this civil action without a lawyer while incarcerated in the Westchester County Jail. He originally filed the action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, and that court transferred the complaint to the Southern District of New York on January 4, 2022.
A prisoner filing a civil action must either pay the filing and administrative fees or request permission to proceed without paying the fees upfront. That request is commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis, or IFP. If the court grants IFP status, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner must therefore also submit an authorization allowing the facility to deduct those payments and provide the court with certified account statements for the previous six months.
Order
Johnson submitted an IFP application and a prisoner authorization, but the authorization directed deductions and payments to the Northern District of New York rather than this court. Judge Swain ordered Johnson, within 30 days of the order, either to pay $402 in fees or to complete and submit the attached corrected prisoner authorization. The $402 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee; the administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
The authorization had to identify docket number 22-CV-0049 (LTS). The court ordered that no summons issue at that time. If Johnson complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
Other Rulings and Significance
The order did not address the merits of Johnson’s claims against Yonkers City Court or Westchester County Jail. The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The court also directed the Clerk to mail Johnson a copy of the order and note service on the docket.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.