Urena v. City of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-01189
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Urena v. City of New York, Chief Judge Swain ordered Urena to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization within 30 days.
Amaury Urena, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, and the pending civil action against the City of New York and other defendants.
What happened
Urena v. City of New York concerns Amaury Urena’s civil action. Urena, who is incarcerated and representing himself, submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Urena, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or submit the completed authorization. The authorization would allow installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prison account; the $52 administrative fee does not apply if the court grants permission to proceed without prepayment. No summons will issue at this time.
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain stated that the action will be dismissed if Urena does not comply within the allowed time. The court also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Urena v. City of New York · No. 1:22-cv-01189
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 14, 2022
Background
Amaury Urena brought this civil action against the City of New York and other defendants while incarcerated at the North Infirmary Command on Rikers Island. He is representing himself. Urena submitted an application asking to proceed without paying the filing fees upfront, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Under the statutes cited by the court, a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit the materials needed to request permission to proceed without prepayment. If permission is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization directs the correctional facility to make those deductions and send the court certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months.
Court’s order
The court gave Urena 30 days from the date of the order to do one of two things: pay the $402 in fees, or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization. The authorization must identify docket number 22-CV-1189 (LTS). The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Urena complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order additionally cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the prisoner-litigation statute, potentially affecting a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees in future actions.
Disposition
Chief United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued an order directing prisoner authorization. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants. It required Urena to pay the fees or submit the authorization within 30 days and stated that the action will be dismissed if he fails to comply.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.