Colson v. Annucci
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-00766
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Colson v. Annucci, Judge Swain ordered Ronald Colson to pay fees or submit corrected prisoner forms within 30 days.
Ronald R. Colson, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the stated fees or submit the required corrected forms for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Colson v. Annucci, Ronald R. Colson, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action but submitted an incomplete application to proceed without paying fees upfront.
The court ordered Colson, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or submit a completed prisoner authorization and amended application. The authorization would allow installment deductions from his prison account for the $350 filing fee. No summons was issued at that time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without paying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The court said the action would be dismissed if Colson did not comply with the order within the allowed time.
The detailed version
- Colson v. Annucci · No. 1:23-cv-00766
- Laura Swain
- Jan. 31, 2023
Background
Ronald R. Colson, who was incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility and was proceeding without a lawyer, brought this civil action. The opinion addresses the filing requirements for a prisoner who seeks to proceed without prepaying court fees; it does not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
Filing requirements
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee still must be collected in installments from the prisoner's account under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
Colson submitted an incomplete application to proceed without prepaying fees and did not submit the required prisoner authorization. The authorization directs the correctional facility to deduct the filing fee in installments and to provide certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months.
Ruling
The court ordered Colson, within 30 days of January 31, 2023, either to pay the $402 in fees or to complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization and amended application. Any submission was to identify docket number 23-CV-0766 (LTS). The court stated that no summons would issue at that time and that, if Colson complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the permitted time, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The opinion also cautioned that certain future dismissals could count as strikes under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), but it did not make such a dismissal in this order.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.