Williams v. Hoovler
- Cathy Seibel
- 7:22-cv-09699
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Williams v. Hoovler, Judge Swain ordered plaintiff to pay fees or submit authorization within 30 days; no summons issued.
Nayo Williams, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer; the defendants were not subject to a merits ruling in this order.
What happened
In Williams v. Hoovler, Nayo Williams, who is incarcerated and proceeding without a lawyer, submitted an application to proceed without paying court fees upfront but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Williams, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or submit the completed prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prison account. The court also directed that no summons issue at that time and warned that the case would be dismissed if Williams did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order. She also ruled that any appeal from the order would not qualify for fee-free status because it would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Hoovler · No. 7:22-cv-09699
- Cathy Seibel
- Nov. 15, 2022
Background
Nayo Williams, who the opinion says is incarcerated at Orange County Jail, brought the action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning to proceed without paying court fees upfront, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Required Filing or Payment
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 and prisoner authorization requesting permission to proceed without prepaying the fees. Even if permission is granted, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner's account.
The court ordered Williams to do one of two things within 30 days of the order: pay the $402 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 22-CV-9699 (LTS). The authorization would direct the facility holding him to provide certified account statements for the previous six months and deduct installment payments from his prison account.
Other Rulings
No summons would issue at that time. If Williams 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. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The opinion also cautioned that certain dismissals of prisoner actions can count as strikes under the federal prisoner fee statute.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.