Lucas v. House
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-09206
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In Lucas v. House, Judge Swain ordered Troy Lucas to pay a $5 filing fee or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
Troy Lucas, who must either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days. Odyssey House was not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
In Lucas v. House, Troy Lucas filed a petition asking for habeas relief without paying the $5 filing fee or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court gave Lucas 30 days to pay the fee or submit a signed application. No response from Odyssey House was required at that time, and the case would be processed if Lucas complied. If he did not comply, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the substance of Lucas’s petition.
The detailed version
- Lucas v. House · No. 1:22-cv-09206
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 31, 2022
Background
Troy Lucas, representing himself, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against Odyssey House. The opinion says that Lucas submitted the petition without the required $5 filing fee and without an application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application.
Order
The court ordered Lucas, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $5 filing fee or complete and submit the attached signed IFP application. If the court granted the application, Lucas could proceed without paying the fee in advance. The application requested information about income, assets, expenses, dependents, and debts.
The court stated that no answer from Odyssey House was required at that time. If Lucas 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.
Appeal and effect
The court certified that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal. This order addressed filing-fee and payment requirements; it did not decide whether Lucas was entitled to habeas relief.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.