Lugo v. The State of New York
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:23-cv-05602
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
Lugo v. New York: Judge Swain gave Lugo 30 days to pay filing fees or submit prisoner authorization, or the action will be dismissed.
Ulyse Lugo and the status of his case: he must pay the filing fees or submit the required prisoner authorization within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed. The order also denies IFP status for an appeal.
What happened
In Lugo v. The State of New York, Ulyse Lugo filed a civil-rights action without paying the filing fees or submitting all required paperwork. He submitted an application to proceed without paying fees upfront, but he did not submit the required prisoner authorization.
The court gave Lugo another 30 days to either pay $402 in filing fees or submit the prisoner authorization. The order says the case will be processed if he complies and the action will be dismissed if he does not.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied Lugo permission to appeal without paying fees.
The detailed version
- Lugo v. The State of New York · No. 1:23-cv-05602
- Valerie Caproni
- July 24, 2023
Background
Ulyse Lugo, who was detained at Essex County Correctional Facility, brought the action without a lawyer. He submitted his complaint without paying the filing fees or submitting an application to proceed without paying fees upfront, known as an IFP application, together with a prisoner authorization.
The court had previously directed Lugo to either pay $402 in filing fees or submit a completed IFP application and prisoner authorization within 30 days. Lugo submitted the IFP application, but the court received no prisoner authorization.
Order
Because Lugo was proceeding without a lawyer, the court gave him another opportunity to submit the missing authorization. The court directed him, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 filing fee or submit the attached prisoner authorization.
The authorization would acknowledge Lugo's obligation to pay the full filing fees in installments from his prison account and would permit the agency holding him to provide an account statement and send the required payments to the court. The order states that, if Lugo complies, the case will be processed under the Clerk's Office procedures. If he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed.
Appeal ruling
Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. The court therefore denied IFP status for purposes of an appeal.
Effect of the order
This order addressed filing-fee and prisoner-authorization requirements. It 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.