Sellers v. United States of America
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-05898
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Sellers v. United States, Judge Swain ordered the plaintiff to pay fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment, warning of dismissal without prejudice for noncompliance.
Douglas Sellers and the pending civil action, because the court required payment or submission of forms before the case could proceed and warned of dismissal without prejudice for noncompliance.
What happened
In Sellers v. United States of America, Douglas Sellers filed a civil action while incarcerated but did not submit the required filing fees, an application to proceed without prepaying fees, or a prisoner authorization.
The court gave Sellers 30 days to either pay $402 or submit the required forms. The prisoner authorization would allow installment deductions for the $350 filing fee from his account. The court said no summons would issue at that time.
If Sellers did not comply, the action would be dismissed without prejudice. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Sellers v. United States of America · No. 1:22-cv-05898
- Laura Swain
- July 12, 2022
Background
Douglas Sellers, who was incarcerated at FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint but did not pay the required fees or submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization.
Fee and filing 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. To make that request, Sellers had to submit a signed application and a prisoner authorization. If permission were granted, the authorization would allow the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from his prison account and would require certified copies of his account statements for the previous six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that permission.
Order
The court ordered Sellers, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 22-CV-5898 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. The court stated that if Sellers failed to comply within the allowed period, the action would be dismissed without prejudice.
Appeal and other warning
The court 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 appeal without prepaying fees. The court also cautioned that a later dismissal of the action as frivolous or for failure to state a claim could count as a qualifying dismissal, or “strike,” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.