Corbin v. Annucci
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-06907
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 7
In Corbin v. Annucci, Judge Swain ordered the prisoner to pay fees or submit forms and an original signature before the case could proceed.
Ricardo Corbin, who must satisfy the court’s filing-fee, prisoner-authorization, and signature requirements for the action to proceed; the case may be dismissed if he does not comply within 30 days.
What happened
In Corbin v. Annucci, Ricardo Corbin filed a civil lawsuit without a filing-fee payment, a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, a prisoner authorization, or his original signature. The opinion states that Corbin was incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and represented himself.
The court gave Corbin 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit the required application and authorization. It also directed him to resubmit the complaint’s signature page with an original signature. No summons would be issued at that time, and the court said the action would be dismissed if he did not comply within the deadline.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain issued the order on August 9, 2023. She also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal. The order did not address the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Corbin v. Annucci · No. 1:23-cv-06907
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 9, 2023
Background
Ricardo Corbin brought this civil action against Anthony Annucci, identified in the caption as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Joseph Sergeant, and two John Doe defendants. The opinion states that Corbin was incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and proceeded without a lawyer.
Corbin submitted the complaint without paying the required fees, without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, without a prisoner authorization, and without signing the complaint. The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402—consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account.
Court’s directives
The court directed Corbin, within 30 days of the order, to do one of the following:
- Pay the $402 in fees; or - Submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying fees and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-6907 (LTS).
The prisoner authorization would direct the facility holding Corbin to deduct the $350 filing fee from his account in installments and send the court certified copies of his account statements for the previous six months.
The court separately directed Corbin to resubmit the complaint’s signature page with an original signature within the same 30-day period. The court cited the federal rule requiring an unrepresented party to sign a pleading personally and explained that a handwritten or hand-placed mark is required.
Disposition
The court ordered that no summons be issued at that time. It stated that, if Corbin complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office procedures; if he failed to comply within the allowed time, the action would be dismissed. The court did not decide the merits of the complaint.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 7-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.