Jones v. Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-02104
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Jones v. Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, Judge Swain ordered the incarcerated plaintiff to pay fees or submit authorization to proceed.
Tyrone C. Jones, an incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit the prisoner authorization within 30 days for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Jones v. Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, Tyrone C. Jones, who is incarcerated and representing himself, submitted an application to proceed without paying court fees upfront. He did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court gave Jones 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or complete and submit the prisoner authorization. The authorization would permit installment payments of the $350 filing fee from his prison account and provide six months of account statements. No summons would issue at that time, and the court said the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal from the order, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Jones v. Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company · No. 1:23-cv-02104
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 14, 2023
Background Tyrone C. Jones, who the opinion says is incarcerated, brought the action without a lawyer. He submitted an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
Applicable requirements The court explained that a prisoner starting a civil action must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees by submitting a signed application and a prisoner authorization. If permission is granted, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to deduct those payments and send certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months to the court.
Order The court ordered Jones, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-2104 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. If Jones complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures; if he did not comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal. The opinion does not address the merits of Jones's claims against the defendants.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.