Berrios v. Pliler
- John Koeltl
- 7:22-cv-05426
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Berrios v. Pliler, Judge Swain ordered the self-represented petitioner to pay the filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepayment.
Henry Alexander Berrios must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit the required application within 30 days; otherwise, the action will be dismissed. Warden Pliler was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
In Berrios v. Pliler, Henry Alexander Berrios filed a petition asking for habeas corpus relief but did not pay the required filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepaying it.
The court gave Berrios 30 days to pay the $5 filing fee or complete and submit the attached application. The court said no response from the respondent was required at that time and warned that the action would be dismissed if Berrios 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 appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the habeas petition itself.
The detailed version
- Berrios v. Pliler · No. 7:22-cv-05426
- John Koeltl
- June 29, 2022
Background
Henry Alexander Berrios, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The opinion states that he submitted the petition without the $5 filing fee and without an application to proceed without prepayment of fees.
Payment or fee-waiver requirement
The court ordered Berrios, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $5 filing fee or complete and submit the attached application to proceed without prepayment of fees. The application was to identify docket number 22-CV-5426 (LTS). If the court granted the application, Berrios would be allowed to proceed without paying the filing fee in advance.
The court stated that no answer from Warden Pliler was required at that time. If Berrios complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed. The order itself did not decide the merits of Berrios’s habeas petition.
Appeal-related ruling
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
Disposition
The court ordered Berrios to pay the filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepayment of fees. It did not rule on the habeas claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.