Garland v. Clinton Correctional Facility
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-10947
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Garland v. Covington, Chief Judge Swain ordered Garland to pay fees or submit corrected fee forms before the case proceeds.
Tamarkqua Garland, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit corrected fee-waiver documents for the case to proceed.
What happened
Tamarkqua Garland v. Correction Officer Covington et al. is a case brought by Garland, who is incarcerated and does not have a lawyer. The court opened the case without payment of the required fees or a completed application to proceed without paying fees in advance.
Within 30 days, Garland must either pay $402 or submit a signed fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization identifying this case’s docket number, 22-CV-10947 (LTS). The authorization previously filed identified a different case. The court said the case will be dismissed if Garland does not comply, and no response from the defendants is required at this time.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on January 4, 2023. She also ruled that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Garland v. Clinton Correctional Facility · No. 1:22-cv-10947
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 4, 2023
Background
Tamarkqua Garland, who the opinion says is incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility, brought this action without a lawyer. The action was opened without the required filing fees being paid and without a completed application to proceed without paying fees in advance. The prisoner authorization Garland filed identified the caption and docket number of another action rather than this case.
Requirements for proceeding
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 to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the application, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the incarceration facility to deduct those payments and provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.
The court ordered Garland, within 30 days of the order, to choose one of those options. Any application and authorization must identify docket number 22-CV-10947 (LTS). The court stated that no answer from the defendants was required at that time. If Garland complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures; if Garland does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.
Ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued an order directing payment of fees or submission of a fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization. The order did not decide the underlying claims. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The opinion cautioned that certain future dismissals for being frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim can count as strikes under the prisoner-filing statute.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.