Williams v. Smith
- Cathy Seibel
- 7:22-cv-06482
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Williams v. Smith: Judge Swain ordered Marquise Williams to pay fees or submit missing prisoner authorization within 30 days.
Marquise Williams, who was required to pay the fees or submit the missing prisoner authorization before the case could proceed.
What happened
In Marquise Williams v. Marquis Smith, Williams filed a civil case without a lawyer and submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront, but not the required prisoner authorization.
The order gave Williams 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit the authorization, which permits installment deductions from his account. No summons would issue immediately, and the case would be processed if he complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Smith · No. 7:22-cv-06482
- Cathy Seibel
- Aug. 1, 2022
Background
Marquise Williams, who the opinion says is incarcerated at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, filed this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Fee and authorization requirements
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees by submitting a signed application and a prisoner authorization. If permission is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the facility to make those deductions and provide certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months.
Order
The court ordered Williams, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with the case docket number. No summons would issue at that time. If Williams 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 certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The opinion also cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a strike under the prisoner filing-fee statute. This order did not address the merits of Williams's underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.