Palm v. Brooks
- Vincent Briccetti
- 7:22-cv-09729
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Palm v. Brooks, Judge Swain ordered incarcerated plaintiff Nicholas M. Palm to pay filing fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment, or face dismissal.
Nicholas M. Palm, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the specified forms within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Palm v. Brooks, Nicholas M. Palm, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without paying upfront. The order did not address the claims against Jessica Brooks or the other defendants.
The court gave Palm 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee would still be collected from his account in installments. The court said no answer was required at that time and warned that the action would be dismissed if Palm did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order directed the Clerk’s Office to process the case if Palm complied with its requirements.
The detailed version
- Palm v. Brooks · No. 7:22-cv-09729
- Vincent Briccetti
- Nov. 21, 2022
Background
Nicholas M. Palm filed this civil action without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, commonly called an IFP application, or a prisoner authorization. The opinion states that Palm was incarcerated at Orange County Correctional Facility and was representing himself. The caption names Jessica Brooks and other defendants.
Order
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $402— consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit the IFP application and prisoner authorization. If the court grants the IFP application, the $350 filing fee remains due and must be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The prisoner authorization permits deductions from the account and requires certified account statements for the prior six months to be sent to the court.
The court ordered Palm, within 30 days of the order, to pay the $402 or submit the required IFP application and prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 22-CV-9729 (LTS). No answer was required at that time. The order stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Palm complied and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the permitted time.
Appeal and effect
Judge Laura Taylor Swain 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 is procedural: it addressed filing fees and the requirements for proceeding without prepayment, not the merits of Palm’s claims. The opinion also cautioned that certain future dismissals of prisoner actions can count as “strikes” under federal law, but it did not state that Palm had received a strike in this case.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.