Martinez v. Annucci

Background

Alex Martinez, who the opinion says is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, filed this civil action without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.

Required payment or paperwork

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. To request that permission, Martinez had to submit a signed application and a prisoner authorization.

If the court grants the application, the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires the $350 filing fee to be collected from the prison account in installments, even if the action is later dismissed or voluntarily withdrawn. The prisoner authorization also directs the correctional facility to send the court certified account statements for the preceding six months and to deduct the required amounts.

Order

Within 30 days of the order, Martinez must either pay the $402 in fees or submit the attached application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-6909 (LTS). No summons will be issued at this time. If Martinez complies, the Clerk’s Office will process the case under its procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed period, the action will be dismissed.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied payment-free status for purposes of an appeal. The order also cautioned that certain dismissals can count as strikes under the prisoner litigation statute, potentially limiting a prisoner’s ability to proceed without prepaying fees after three strikes, subject to an exception for imminent danger of serious physical injury.

What the order did not decide

The court did not address whether Martinez’s underlying claims against the defendants have merit.