Bussey v. Annucci
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-06913
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Bussey v. Annucci, Judge Swain ordered Kevin Bussey to pay filing fees or submit applications to proceed without prepayment.
Kevin Bussey, who must either pay the required fees or submit the required application and prisoner authorization for his case to proceed.
What happened
In Bussey v. Annucci, Kevin Bussey filed a civil case without paying the required fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying them. The order states that Bussey is incarcerated and representing himself.
The court gave Bussey 30 days from August 9, 2023, to either pay $402 or submit the required application and authorization. If approved, the $350 filing fee would be collected from his prison account in installments; the $52 administrative fee would not apply. No summons will be issued yet.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the case will be processed if Bussey complies and will be dismissed if he does not. She also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Bussey v. Annucci · No. 1:23-cv-06913
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 9, 2023
Background
Kevin Bussey filed this civil action against Anthony Annucci, identified as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Joseph Sergeant, and two defendants identified as John Doe. The opinion states that Bussey is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and is proceeding without a lawyer.
A prisoner filing a civil action in the district court must either pay the required fees or ask to proceed without prepaying them. Bussey submitted his complaint without paying the fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepayment of fees or a prisoner authorization.
Order
The court ordered Bussey, within 30 days of the order, to either pay $402 in fees or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-6913. The $402 consists of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee. If the court grants the application, the $350 filing fee must still be collected from Bussey’s prison account in installments. The $52 administrative fee does not apply to a person granted this status.
The prisoner authorization would direct the facility holding Bussey to deduct the filing fee in installments and provide certified account statements for the previous six months. The court did not issue a summons at this stage. It stated that the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures if Bussey complied and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time.
Additional rulings and warning
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order also cautioned that a later dismissal on specified grounds, such as frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim, could count as a strike under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.