Louime v. Annucci
- Cathy Seibel
- 7:23-cv-06898
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Louime v. Annucci, Judge Swain ordered David Louime to pay filing fees or submit required forms within 30 days.
David Louime, an incarcerated plaintiff proceeding without a lawyer, must either pay the required fees or submit the required forms within 30 days to keep the case moving.
What happened
In Louime v. Annucci, David Louime filed a civil-rights case without paying the required fees or submitting the forms needed to request permission to pay later from his prisoner account.
The court explained that filing the case generally requires $402 in fees. Instead, Louime could submit a signed application to proceed without paying the fees upfront and a form authorizing installment payments from his account.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Louime to pay the fees or submit both forms within 30 days. The court will not issue summonses yet, and the case will be dismissed if he does not comply. The court also denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Louime v. Annucci · No. 7:23-cv-06898
- Cathy Seibel
- Aug. 11, 2023
Background
David Louime, who is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, filed this civil action without a lawyer. He did not pay the filing fees and did not submit a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
Court’s Order
The court stated that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $402 in fees—$350 for the filing fee and $52 for the administrative fee—or submit the documents required to request permission to proceed without prepayment. If that request is granted, the $350 filing fee is collected in installments from the prisoner’s account. The administrative fee does not apply to a person granted that status.
The court ordered Louime, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $402 or submit the attached fee-waiver application and prisoner authorization, labeled with docket number 23-CV-6898 (LTS). The authorization directs the correctional facility to deduct the filing fee in installments and send the court certified account statements for the previous six months.
Disposition
The court ordered that no summons issue at that time. If Louime 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. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. The order cautioned that a later dismissal for frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim could count as a “strike” under the federal prisoner-filing statute.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.