Hussey v. The Owner of/at Duane Reade
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-03561
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hussey v. The Owner of/at Duane Reade, Chief Judge Swain ordered Hussey to update his fee-waiver request or pay $402 within 30 days.
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey, whose request to proceed without prepaying filing fees must be updated or replaced by payment of $402 within 30 days; failure to comply would result in dismissal without prejudice.
What happened
In Hussey v. The Owner of/at Duane Reade, Yessuh Suhyes Hussey sued the listed Duane Reade and Walgreens owners and asked to proceed without paying filing fees upfront. He had been detained when he filed the case but was released afterward, so his financial application no longer reflected his circumstances.
The court ordered Hussey to submit an updated application to proceed without prepaying fees or pay the $402 filing and administrative fees within 30 days. If he did not comply, the court said the action would be dismissed without prejudice, meaning the dismissal would not bar refiling. The court also denied permission to appeal without paying fees.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order. The order addressed fee payment and the application to proceed without prepayment; it did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. The Owner of/at Duane Reade · No. 1:23-cv-03561
- Laura Swain
- May 1, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey brought the action without a lawyer and asked to proceed in forma pauperis (without prepaying court fees). When he filed the action in the Eastern District of New York, he was detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island. He was later released, and the court determined that his existing application no longer showed his current financial circumstances.
Court’s analysis
The court relied on the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which provides a payment system for filing fees owed by incarcerated plaintiffs. The court explained that this payment system cannot continue after a prisoner is released. After release, the person must either pay the remaining filing fee or have the ability to pay evaluated under the rules applicable to a non-prisoner.
Order
The court directed Hussey to submit the attached amended application to proceed without prepaying fees so that it could evaluate his current ability to pay. Alternatively, if he could afford the fees, he had to pay $402, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee, within 30 days of the order. If he failed to file the amended application within that period, the action would be dismissed without prejudice.
The court also certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order did not rule on the merits of Hussey’s underlying claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.