Crane v. Annucci
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-06912
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 7
In Crane v. Annucci, Judge Swain ordered Michael Crane to submit a signed complaint and payment or fee-waiver papers within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed.
Michael Crane, who must provide the required fees or fee-waiver materials and an original signature for his action to proceed; the defendants were not required to respond because no summons was issued.
What happened
In Crane v. Annucci, Michael Crane filed a civil lawsuit without paying the required fees, submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, or signing the complaint. The order states that Crane is incarcerated and representing himself.
The court gave Crane 30 days to either pay $402 in fees or submit the required application and authorization for installment payments from his prison account. The court also required him to submit an original signature page for the complaint. No summons will be issued at this time, and the action will be dismissed if he does not comply within the allowed time.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. The order did not decide the claims in the lawsuit.
The detailed version
- Crane v. Annucci · No. 1:23-cv-06912
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 11, 2023
Background
Michael Crane filed this civil action while incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and without a lawyer. The complaint named Anthony Annucci, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Joseph Sergeant, a John Doe officer in charge, and a John Doe escorting officer as defendants. The complaint was submitted without the filing fees, a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees, a prisoner authorization, or Crane's signature.
Court's requirements
The court explained that a prisoner must either pay $402 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee—or submit an application to proceed without prepaying fees and a prisoner authorization. If the court grants that application, the $350 filing fee must be collected in installments from the prisoner's account. The authorization also directs the correctional facility to provide certified copies of the prisoner's account statements for the previous six months.
The court ordered Crane, within 30 days of the order, to do one of the following:
- Pay the $402 in fees; or - Submit the completed application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-6912 (LTS).
The court separately ordered Crane to resubmit the complaint's signature page with an original signature within the same 30-day period. The court relied on the federal rule requiring an unrepresented party to personally sign a pleading and on the applicable local rule.
Disposition
The court directed Crane to provide the missing payment or fee-waiver materials and the original signature. It ordered that no summons be issued at that time. If Crane complies, the Clerk's Office will process the case under its procedures; if he does not comply within the allowed time, the action will be dismissed. The opinion does not state that the dismissal would be with or without prejudice.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain 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 an appeal. The court did not reach the merits of Crane's claims.
Read the full 7-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.