Stubbs v. Colby
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-08056
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Stubbs v. Colby, Chief Judge Swain ordered the incarcerated plaintiff to pay filing fees or submit forms to seek payment-free filing.
Cornelius Delmar Stubbs, an incarcerated self-represented plaintiff, and the defendants in his civil action.
What happened
In Stubbs v. Colby, Cornelius Delmar Stubbs filed a civil action without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Stubbs 30 days to pay $402 in fees or submit an application and authorization allowing payments to be deducted from his account in installments. No answer was required from the defendants at that time.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the case would be processed if Stubbs complied, but that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the deadline. She also denied payment-free filing status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Stubbs v. Colby · No. 1:22-cv-08056
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 30, 2022
Background
Cornelius Delmar Stubbs, who was incarcerated at Orange County Correctional Facility and represented himself, filed this civil action without paying the required filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), meaning without prepaying the fees.
Fee requirements
The court explained that a prisoner starting a civil action must either pay $402— consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed IFP application and a prisoner authorization. If IFP status is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The prisoner authorization also directs the facility to make those deductions and provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
Order
The court ordered Stubbs, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 in fees or submit the attached IFP application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 22-CV-8056 (LTS). No answer was required from the defendants at that time. If Stubbs complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the deadline, the action would be dismissed.
The court certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order also warned that certain dismissals of prisoner actions can count as strikes 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.