Hussey v. Beth Israel Medical Center
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-04377
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hussey v. Beth Israel Medical Center, Judge Swain ordered a detained plaintiff to pay fees or submit prisoner authorization within 30 days.
The order directly affected Yessuh Suhyes Hussey, a self-represented plaintiff who was detained when he filed the action and again when the order was issued. It determined what he had to submit or pay before the case could proceed, but it did not decide his claims against Beth Israel Medical Center, the NYPD defendants, the hospital physician, or the ambulance driver.
What happened
In Hussey v. Beth Israel Medical Center, the plaintiff filed the case without a lawyer and asked to proceed without paying filing fees upfront. He had been detained when he filed the case, was later released, and was detained again by the time of this order.
The court found that he had submitted an application to proceed without prepaying fees but had not submitted the required prisoner authorization. The court ordered him, within 30 days, either to pay $402 in fees or submit the authorization, which permits installment deductions from his account. No summons would issue at that time, and the court said the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. The order did not decide the underlying claims against the defendants.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. Beth Israel Medical Center · No. 1:23-cv-04377
- Laura Swain
- June 5, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey filed this action without a lawyer and requested permission to proceed without prepaying filing fees. He originally filed the action in the Eastern District of New York. At that time, he was detained and therefore qualified as a prisoner under the federal filing-fee statute. He was later released from custody. The Eastern District received his application to proceed without prepaying fees, transferred the action to the Southern District of New York, and reserved the fee decision for that court.
The court learned that Hussey was again in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction. Because he was a prisoner when he filed the complaint and had not filed a prisoner authorization, the court directed him to correct that omission.
Court’s Analysis
A prisoner who wants to bring a civil action without prepaying fees must submit both a signed application to proceed without prepayment and a prisoner authorization. The authorization permits the facility holding the prisoner to deduct the $350 filing fee from the prisoner’s account in installments and requires certified account statements for the preceding six months to be sent to the court. The separate $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted permission to proceed without prepaying fees.
Hussey had submitted the fee application but not the prisoner authorization. The court therefore gave him 30 days from the date of the order to either pay the full $402 in fees or complete and submit the authorization labeled with the case docket number.
Disposition
The court directed Hussey to pay the fees or submit the prisoner authorization within 30 days. It ordered that no summons issue at that time and stated that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply. If he complied, the Clerk’s Office would process the case under its usual procedures. The court also certified 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 rule on the merits of Hussey’s claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.