Cano v. United States of America/Corporate America
- Laura Swain
- 1:21-cv-09165
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Cano v. United States of America/Corporate America, Judge Swain ordered Christopher Hiram Cano to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization within 30 days.
Christopher Hiram Cano, a detained prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit the required prisoner authorization within 30 days to continue the case.
What happened
In Christopher Hiram Cano v. United States of America/Corporate America, et al., Cano filed a civil action while detained at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island and submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront. He did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Cano, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or submit the completed prisoner authorization. That authorization would allow the court to deduct the $350 filing fee from his account in installments and obtain certified account statements. No summons would issue at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain stated that the case would be processed if Cano complied and would be dismissed if he did not. She also denied fee-free status for any appeal from this order, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Cano v. United States of America/Corporate America · No. 1:21-cv-09165
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 5, 2022
Background
Christopher Hiram Cano, who was detained at the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Filing-fee requirements
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $402 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $52 for the administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees by submitting both a signed fee application and a prisoner authorization. If permission to proceed without prepaying fees is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires collection of the $350 filing fee through installment deductions from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the facility to provide certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the preceding six months.
Order
The court ordered Cano 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 21-CV-9165 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. If Cano complied, the Clerk's Office would process the case under its procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain 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 proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order cautioned that certain future dismissals of prisoner cases can count as "strikes" under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), potentially affecting a prisoner's ability to file future federal civil actions without prepaying fees. This order did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.