Fredricks v. Sheerwood
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-10323
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Fredricks v. Sheerwood, Judge Swain ordered the incarcerated plaintiff to pay filing fees or submit forms to proceed without prepayment.
Nigel Fredricks, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the specified application and prisoner authorization for the action to proceed.
What happened
Nigel Fredricks filed Fredricks v. Sheerwood in the Southern District of New York while incarcerated and without a lawyer. He submitted his complaint without the required fees or completed forms requesting permission to proceed without paying fees upfront.
The court gave Fredricks 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit a signed application and authorization allowing installment deductions from his prison account. No answer from the defendant was required at that time, and the case would be processed if Fredricks complied; otherwise, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an 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 claims in the lawsuit.
The detailed version
- Fredricks v. Sheerwood · No. 1:22-cv-10323
- Laura Swain
- Dec. 7, 2022
Background
Nigel Fredricks brought this civil action while incarcerated at Marcy Correctional facility and representing himself. He submitted the complaint without paying the required fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or the required prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
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 request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee must still be paid in installments deducted from the prisoner’s account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The prisoner authorization permits those deductions and requires submission of certified account statements for the previous six months.
The court ordered Fredricks, within 30 days of the order, to do one of two things: pay the $402 in fees, or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization. Those documents were to identify docket number 22-CV-10323 (LTS). The court stated that no answer was required at that stage. If Fredricks complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Appeal and Effect
The court certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order addressed filing-fee and prisoner-authorization requirements; it did not decide the merits of Fredricks’s claims. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order as Chief United States District Judge.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.