Annarumma v. Homeland Security Investigation
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-00432
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Judge Swain dismissed Annarumma v. Homeland Security Investigation without prejudice after Annarumma neither paid required fees nor completed a prisoner authorization.
The dismissal affected Guerino Mario Annarumma’s complaint against Homeland Security Investigation and the other named defendants; the court did not reach the underlying claims.
What happened
In Annarumma v. Homeland Security Investigation, Guerino Mario Annarumma, who was incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil case after submitting an application to proceed without paying court fees. The court required either payment of $402 or a completed prisoner authorization.
Annarumma did not pay the fees and returned a blank authorization instead of completing it. The court therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling. The court also denied permission to proceed without paying fees on appeal.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the dismissal and certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Annarumma v. Homeland Security Investigation · No. 1:22-cv-00432
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 24, 2022
Background
Guerino Mario Annarumma, who was incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility and was representing himself, brought a civil action against Homeland Security Investigation and others. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees, but he did not submit the required signed prisoner authorization.
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $52 for the administrative fee—or submit the required authorization to proceed without prepaying fees. On February 10, 2022, the court gave Annarumma 30 days to pay the fees or file the authorization and warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal.
Court’s Ruling
Annarumma did not pay the fees. He returned a blank prisoner authorization with a statement declining to sign it. The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice because he had neither paid the filing fees nor submitted a completed prisoner authorization.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.