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. Duane Reade, Judge Swain ordered a prisoner to pay filing fees or submit authorization to proceed without prepayment.
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey, who must either pay the required fees or submit a prisoner authorization within 30 days to avoid dismissal of the action.
What happened
In Hussey v. The Owner of/at Duane Reade, Yessuh Suhyes Hussey sought permission to proceed without paying court fees upfront. He had been released after filing the case but was later again in New York City Department of Corrections custody.
Because Hussey was in custody and had not submitted the required prisoner authorization, the court gave him 30 days to either pay $402 or submit the authorization. The authorization would allow filing-fee payments to be deducted from his account in installments.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed that no summons issue yet and said the case would be processed if Hussey complied. She stated that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply, and denied fee-free status for any appeal from the order.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. The Owner of/at Duane Reade · No. 1:23-cv-03561
- Laura Swain
- May 18, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey brought this action without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying the filing fees upfront. He originally filed the action in the Eastern District of New York, which transferred it to the Southern District of New York. When he filed, he was detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island. He was later released, and the court previously directed him to submit an updated application or pay the fees. The court then learned that he was again in the custody of the New York City Department of Corrections.
Prisoner authorization requirement
A prisoner who wants to proceed without prepaying fees must submit both an application to proceed without prepayment and a signed prisoner authorization. The authorization permits the filing fee to be deducted from the prisoner’s account in installments and requires certified account statements for the preceding six months. Hussey had submitted the application but not the authorization.
Order
The court ordered Hussey, within 30 days of the order, to either pay $402 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-3561 (LTS). The court stated that no summons would issue at that time. If Hussey complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he did not, the action would be dismissed. The court also denied fee-free status for an appeal from this order, stating that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the Clerk to vacate the earlier order requiring payment or an amended application. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.