Izeh v. Ross
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-08824
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Izeh v. Ross, Judge Swain ordered payment or an application to proceed without prepaying fees before the case could proceed.
Izeh A. Matthew, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees; the case will be dismissed if he does not comply within 30 days.
What happened
In Izeh v. Ross, Izeh A. Matthew, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action with a prisoner authorization but without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Judge Swain gave him 30 days to either pay $402 in filing and administrative fees or submit the completed application. If approved, the $350 filing fee would be collected from his account in installments; the $52 administrative fee would not apply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that no summons issue yet. If Matthew complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case; if he does not, the action will be dismissed. The court also denied fee-free status for an appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Izeh v. Ross · No. 1:22-cv-08824
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 25, 2022
Background
Izeh A. Matthew filed this civil action while incarcerated at the Vernon C. Bain Center on Rikers Island and without a lawyer. He submitted a prisoner authorization, but he did not submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an application to proceed in forma pauperis or IFP.
Order
The court directed Matthew, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 required to file a civil action or submit the attached IFP application. The $402 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. If the court grants the IFP application, the $350 filing fee must still be collected from Matthew’s account in installments under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted IFP status.
Effect of the Order
No summons will issue at this time. If Matthew complies with the order, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its usual procedures. If he does not comply within the permitted time, the action will be dismissed. The court also certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. The order cautioned that certain future dismissals could count as strikes under the prisoner-filing statute, but it did not decide the merits of Matthew’s claims.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.