Hibbert v. The State of New York
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-08257
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hibbert v. The State of New York, Judge Swain ordered a corrected prisoner authorization or $402 payment within 30 days before the case proceeds.
Conroy Hibbert, Jr., a self-represented incarcerated plaintiff, must either pay the required fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Conroy Hibbert, Jr. v. The State of New York, et al., Hibbert filed a civil case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying the fees in advance. He submitted the required application and authorization, but the authorization directed payments to the wrong federal district court.
The court gave Hibbert 30 days to either pay the $402 filing and administrative fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization labeled with the case’s docket number. The authorization would allow installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prison account. The court said no summons would issue yet and that the case would be processed if he complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on September 28, 2022. She also denied fee-free status for any appeal from the order, finding that such an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Hibbert v. The State of New York · No. 1:22-cv-08257
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 28, 2022
Background
Conroy Hibbert, Jr., who the opinion says was incarcerated at Gouverneur Correctional Facility, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees and a prisoner authorization. The Prison Litigation Reform Act requires a prisoner who receives permission to proceed without prepaying fees to pay the $350 filing fee in installments from the prison account. The authorization also directs the facility to provide certified account statements for the previous six months.
Issue with the Authorization
The court found that Hibbert’s authorization allowed deductions to be sent only to the Northern District of New York, rather than to the Southern District of New York, where this case was filed. The opinion does not describe the underlying claims in the lawsuit.
Order
The court ordered Hibbert, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the full $402 in fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee, or complete and submit the attached corrected prisoner authorization. The opinion explains that the $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees. Any corrected authorization was required to identify docket number 22-CV-8257 (LTS).
No summons would issue at that time. If Hibbert complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The order did not decide the merits of Hibbert’s claims.
Appeal and Prisoner-Filing 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 proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The attached authorization also warned that certain dismissals of prisoner cases can count as “strikes” under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), and that a prisoner with three strikes generally cannot proceed without prepaying fees in later federal civil actions unless the prisoner faces imminent danger of serious physical injury.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Hibbert to pay the fees or submit a corrected prisoner authorization within 30 days. The court did not dismiss the action in this order; it stated that the action would be dismissed if Hibbert failed to comply.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.