Hussey v. Beth Israel Medical Center
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-04375
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hussey v. Beth Israel, Judge Swain ordered the detained plaintiff to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization before proceeding without prepayment.
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey, who was detained and represented himself, must either pay the required fees or submit a prisoner authorization to continue seeking permission to proceed without prepayment.
What happened
In Hussey v. Beth Israel Medical Center, Yessuh Suhyes Hussey asked to proceed without paying court fees in a lawsuit against Beth Israel Medical Center and other defendants.
The court explained that because Hussey was detained when he filed the case and was detained again when the order was issued, he had to submit a signed prisoner authorization along with his application to proceed without prepayment. Within 30 days, he had to either pay $402 or submit the authorization. The court did not issue summonses and warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal of the action.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Hussey to provide the authorization or pay the fees, and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees because any appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. Beth Israel Medical Center · No. 1:23-cv-04375
- Laura Swain
- May 31, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey filed this civil action without a lawyer and asked to proceed without prepaying court fees. He originally filed the action in the Eastern District of New York. At that time, he was detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island. He was later released from custody, submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees, and the Eastern District transferred the action to the Southern District of New York while reserving the fee decision for that court. The court later learned that Hussey was again detained by the New York City Department of Correction.
Prisoner authorization requirement
The court explained that a detained prisoner seeking to proceed without prepaying fees must submit both a signed application and a prisoner authorization. The authorization permits deductions from the prisoner’s account to collect the $350 filing fee in installments and requires certified copies of the account statements for the previous six months. The separate $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepayment.
Hussey had submitted the fee application but not the prisoner authorization. The court therefore ordered him, within 30 days, either to pay the full $402 in fees or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 23-CV-4375. The court directed that no summons issue at that time. It stated that, if Hussey 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.
Ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Hussey to pay the fees or submit the prisoner authorization. The order did not grant or deny the underlying fee application. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the federal prisoner-litigation statute.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.