Malfatone v. Neal
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-02131
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 5
In Malfatone v. Neal, Judge Swain ordered Joseph C. Malfatone to pay $405 or submit required forms within 30 days, or the action will be dismissed.
Joseph C. Malfatone, who must either pay the required fees or submit the specified application and prisoner authorization for the case to proceed.
What happened
In Malfatone v. Neal, Joseph C. Malfatone, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action without paying the required fees or submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying them.
The court gave Malfatone 30 days to either pay $405 or submit the required application and authorization for installment payments from his prison account. The court did not issue summonses at that time and said the action will be dismissed if he does not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees.
The detailed version
- Malfatone v. Neal · No. 1:24-cv-02131
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 22, 2024
Background
Joseph C. Malfatone filed this civil action while incarcerated at Orange County Correctional Facility and without a lawyer. He submitted the complaint without paying the filing fees and without submitting a completed application to proceed without prepaying fees or a prisoner authorization.
The Court’s Order
The court explained that a prisoner filing a civil action must either pay $405 in fees—a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee—or request permission to proceed without prepaying fees. To make that request, the prisoner must submit a signed application and an authorization allowing the $350 filing fee to be deducted from the prisoner’s account in installments. The authorization must also direct the facility to provide certified account statements for the preceding six months.
The court ordered Malfatone, within 30 days of the order, to either pay the $405 or submit the required application and prisoner authorization. The filings were to identify docket number 24-CV-2131 (LTS). The court stated that no summons would be issued at that time. It further stated that, if Malfatone complied, the case would be processed under the Clerk’s Office’s procedures, and that the action would be dismissed if he failed to comply within the allowed time.
Appeal and Effect
The court certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without prepaying fees. This order addressed the filing-fee and authorization requirements; the opinion did not decide the underlying claims in the civil action.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.