Wheeler v. Artola
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-01023
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Wheeler v. Artola, Judge Swain ordered Damon Wheeler to pay fees or submit authorization to deduct them before the case proceeds.
Damon Wheeler, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, was required to pay the stated fees or submit a prisoner authorization before the action could proceed.
What happened
In Wheeler v. Artola, Damon Wheeler, who is incarcerated at Orange County Jail and represented himself, submitted an application to proceed without paying court fees upfront but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court gave Wheeler 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit the authorization. The authorization would allow installment deductions of the $350 filing fee from his prisoner account and require certified account statements for the previous six months.
The court directed that no summons issue yet and stated that the action will be dismissed if Wheeler does not comply. Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to proceed without fees for any appeal from the order, certifying that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Wheeler v. Artola · No. 1:23-cv-01023
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 8, 2023
Background
Damon Wheeler, who was incarcerated at Orange County Jail, brought this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Court’s requirements
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 prepayment of fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months.
The court ordered Wheeler, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization. The authorization was to identify docket number 23-CV-1023 (LTS).
Disposition
The court ordered that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Wheeler complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures, but if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The court also 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 proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.