Walker v. Capra
- Vincent Briccetti
- 7:22-cv-07638
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Walker v. Capra, Judge Swain ordered Gerald Walker to pay fees or submit required forms within 30 days to continue his lawsuit.
Gerald Walker was required to pay the fees or submit the required fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization within 30 days. The defendants were not required to answer at that time.
What happened
In Walker v. Capra, Gerald Walker filed a civil lawsuit without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to ask to proceed without paying them upfront. The order states that Walker was incarcerated and represented himself.
The court gave Walker 30 days to either pay $402 or submit a signed fee-waiver application and authorization allowing installment payments from his prison account. No answer from the defendants was required yet.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain said the case would be processed if Walker complied and would be dismissed if he did not. She also ruled that any appeal from this order would not qualify for fee-waiver status.
The detailed version
- Walker v. Capra · No. 7:22-cv-07638
- Vincent Briccetti
- Sept. 8, 2022
Background
Gerald Walker filed a civil action without paying the filing fees and without completing an application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Walker was incarcerated at Upstate Correctional Facility and was proceeding without a lawyer.
What the order required
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified account statements for the previous six months and make the required deductions.
Walker was given 30 days from the date of the order to pay the fees or submit the completed application and authorization, labeled with docket number 22-CV-7638 (LTS). The court stated that no answer from the defendants was required at that time. If Walker complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Other ruling
The court certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. The order also cautioned that certain later dismissals of prisoner lawsuits can count as strikes under federal law, and that three such strikes generally prevent a prisoner from proceeding without prepaying fees unless an imminent danger exception applies.
Disposition and significance
This was an administrative and procedural order about payment of fees and required filings. It did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants, and it did not dismiss the action at that time.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.