Lucas v. Commissioner of Mental Health
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-11274
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Lucas v. Commissioner of Mental Health, Judge Swain dismissed Lucas’s action without prejudice after he neither paid the filing fee nor submitted an IFP application.
Troy Lucas’s action was dismissed without prejudice. The Commissioner of Mental Health was the respondent. The court also denied Lucas permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal and said a certificate of appealability would not issue.
What happened
In Lucas v. Commissioner of Mental Health, Troy Lucas filed a petition in federal court against the Commissioner of Mental Health. The opinion does not describe the petition’s underlying claims.
The court had ordered Lucas to submit an application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $5 filing fee within 30 days. The order warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal, but Lucas did neither.
Judge Swain dismissed the action without prejudice. The court also said that no certificate allowing an appeal would issue and denied permission to proceed without paying appeal-related fees because an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Lucas v. Commissioner of Mental Health · No. 1:23-cv-11274
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 5, 2024
Background
Troy Lucas filed a petition against the Commissioner of Mental Health. The opinion identifies the filing as a habeas corpus action but does not discuss the petition’s underlying legal claims.
Filing-fee requirement
On January 2, 2024, the court ordered Lucas, within 30 days, either to submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $5 filing fee required for a habeas action. The order warned that failure to comply would result in dismissal. Lucas did not submit the application or pay the fee.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The dismissal was based on Lucas’s failure to comply with the filing-fee order; the opinion does not decide the merits of his petition.
The court also ruled that a certificate of appealability would not issue because the petition did not make a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied. It certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for an appeal. The court directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment dismissing the action.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.