Hussey v. The New York City Health and Hospital Corporation
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-04380
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hussey v. New York City Health and Hospital Corporation, Chief Judge Swain ordered a prisoner to pay fees or submit authorization within 30 days.
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey must either pay $402 or submit the required prisoner authorization within 30 days. If he does not comply, the action will be dismissed; no summons will issue meanwhile. The order also denies fee-free status for an appeal from this order.
What happened
In Hussey v. The New York City Health and Hospital Corporation, Yessuh Suhyes Hussey sued the named defendants and asked to proceed without paying the filing fees upfront. He had submitted an application for that status but had not submitted the required prisoner authorization. The court noted that he was detained and had been a prisoner when he filed the case.
The court gave Hussey 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or complete and submit the prisoner authorization. The authorization would allow filing-fee payments to be deducted from his account in installments. The court also said that no summons would issue at that time.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the case would proceed through the Clerk’s Office if Hussey complied, but that the action would be dismissed if he did not. The court also denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. The New York City Health and Hospital Corporation · No. 1:23-cv-04380
- Laura Swain
- May 31, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey brought this action against The New York City Health and Hospital Corporation; Gregory Calliste, identified in the caption as the corporation’s chief executive officer; and Mitchell Katz, identified as its president and chief executive doctor. Hussey filed the action while detained and asked to proceed without prepaying court fees. He submitted an application for that status, but he did not submit the separate prisoner authorization required by federal law.
The action was initially filed in another federal district and was later transferred to the Southern District of New York. The transferring court reserved the decision on Hussey’s fee application for the Southern District. The opinion states that Hussey was again in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction and that he had been a prisoner when he filed the complaint.
Order
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants the fee application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The authorization also directs the detention facility to provide certified copies of the prisoner’s account statements for the preceding six months.
Within 30 days of the order, Hussey must either pay the $402 or complete and submit the attached prisoner authorization, labeled with the case’s docket number. No summons will issue at that time. If Hussey complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk’s Office’s procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed.
Disposition
Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed Hussey to provide the required authorization or pay the fees; the order did not decide the underlying claims. The court certified that an 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 also cautioned that certain future dismissals of a prisoner’s federal civil actions may count as strikes under the prisoner litigation statute.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.