Hussey v. Mcduffie
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-04373
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hussey v. Mcduffie, Judge Swain ordered prisoner authorization or payment within 30 days before the case could proceed.
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey, a detained prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit a prisoner authorization for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Hussey v. Mcduffie, Yessuh Suhyes Hussey sued Tiffany Dorethea McDuffie and asked to proceed without paying court fees upfront. He had filed the case while detained, later submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees, but did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court ordered Hussey, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or submit the prisoner authorization. That authorization would allow filing-fee payments to be deducted from his prison account in installments. The court said no summons would issue yet and that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. Mcduffie · No. 1:23-cv-04373
- Laura Swain
- May 31, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey filed this civil action without a lawyer and requested permission to proceed without prepaying court fees. He originally filed the action in the Eastern District of New York. At that time, he was detained, but he was later released. The Eastern District directed him to submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees, received that application, and then transferred the action to the Southern District of New York, reserving the fee decision for that court.
The court learned that Hussey was again detained by the New York City Department of Correction. Because he was a prisoner when he filed the complaint and had not submitted a prisoner authorization, the court required him to provide one.
Court’s Order
Under the statutes governing prisoner litigation, a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees or submit both a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If permission to proceed without prepaying fees is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected from the prisoner’s account in installments. The authorization also directs the detention facility to send the court certified account statements for the previous six months.
The court ordered Hussey to do one of two things within 30 days of May 31, 2023: pay the $402 in fees, or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization labeled with docket number 23-CV-4373 (LTS). No summons would issue at that time. If Hussey complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures. If he failed to comply within the permitted 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 appeal without prepaying fees. The order did not address the merits of Hussey’s claims against McDuffie.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.