Cheng v. Garland
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:23-cv-00229
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Cheng v. Garland, Judge Broderick ordered prisoner Sheng-Wen Cheng to pay fees or submit forms, warning the case will be dismissed for noncompliance.
Sheng-Wen Cheng, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer; the action may be dismissed if he does not pay the required fees or submit the required forms within 30 days.
What happened
In Cheng v. Garland, Sheng-Wen Cheng filed a complaint without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to proceed without prepaying them. The court required him to correct that filing deficiency.
The court gave Cheng 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit a completed application and prisoner authorization. The authorization allows installment payments from a prison account if permission to proceed without prepaying fees is granted. No summons will issue yet.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick said the action will be dismissed if Cheng does not comply within the deadline. The court also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees and cautioned that certain future dismissals could count as strikes under federal law.
The detailed version
- Cheng v. Garland · No. 1:23-cv-00229
- Vernon Broderick
- Jan. 17, 2023
Background
Sheng-Wen Cheng, who is incarcerated and proceeding without a lawyer, filed this civil action without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization. The order states that Cheng is incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Sandstone.
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit the application and authorization forms. If the court grants permission to proceed without prepaying fees, the $350 filing fee must still be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account, and certified account statements for the previous six months must be provided. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that permission.
Order
The court ordered Cheng, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 in fees or submit the completed application and prisoner authorization. The documents should identify docket number 23-CV-0229 (VSB). No summons will issue at this time. If Cheng complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he does not comply within the deadline, the action will be dismissed.
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 also cautioned that a dismissal of a prisoner’s federal civil action as frivolous, malicious, or for failure to state a claim may count as a strike under the federal prisoner-litigation statute.
Classification
This is a procedural order because it addresses filing fees and the requirements for requesting permission to proceed without prepaying fees. The court did not decide the claims in Cheng’s complaint.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.