Lurch, Jr. v. John Doe
- John Koeltl
- 1:22-cv-04055
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Lurch, Jr. v. John Doe Officers, Judge Swain ordered a prisoner to pay fees or seek fee-free status within 30 days.
Robert Derek Lurch, Jr. must either pay the required fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization within 30 days; otherwise, this action will be dismissed without prejudice.
What happened
In Lurch, Jr. v. John Doe Officers, Robert Derek Lurch, Jr. brought claims based on police officers’ detention of him under New York Mental Health Law § 9.41 and transport to a psychiatric hospital. The court had separated the claims involving events between August 15, 2021, and October 15, 2021, creating this separate case.
The court ordered Lurch to pay $402 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without paying the fees upfront, along with authorization for payments to be deducted from his prisoner account. He had 30 days to comply. No summons would issue at that time, and the court said the action would be dismissed without prejudice if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied fee-free status for any appeal, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide whether Lurch’s civil-rights claims were legally valid.
The detailed version
- Lurch, Jr. v. John Doe · No. 1:22-cv-04055
- John Koeltl
- May 24, 2022
Background
Robert Derek Lurch, Jr., who was incarcerated at the time, filed a pro se prisoner civil-rights complaint concerning two unrelated incidents in which police officers detained him under New York Mental Health Law § 9.41 and took him to a psychiatric hospital. The claims concerning events between August 15, 2021, and October 15, 2021, were severed from an earlier related proceeding and opened as this separate action under docket number 22-CV-4055.
Although Lurch had been allowed to proceed without prepaying fees in the earlier proceeding, the court explained that severed claims become a new civil action. He therefore had to pay the fees or separately request permission to proceed without prepaying them in this case.
Order
The court ordered Lurch, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things:
1. Pay $402 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee; or 2. Submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 22-CV-4055 (LTS).
If the court grants the request to proceed without prepaying fees, the $350 filing fee would be collected in installments from Lurch’s prisoner account. The court also explained that the prisoner authorization would permit those deductions and require certified account statements for the prior six months.
Disposition
No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that the case would be processed through the Clerk’s Office if Lurch complied with the order. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed without prejudice.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The order did not reach the merits of Lurch’s civil-rights claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.