Hickman v. Biben
- Laura Swain
- 1:24-cv-02731
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Hickman v. Biben: Judge Swain ordered Hickman to pay filing fees or correct his fee-waiver application within 30 days.
Quandell Hickman, the incarcerated plaintiff representing himself, must either pay the required fees or submit a complete amended fee-waiver application within 30 days for the action to proceed.
What happened
In Hickman v. Biben, Quandell Hickman, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a civil action but submitted an incomplete application to proceed without paying fees upfront.
The court ordered Hickman, within 30 days, either to pay $405 in fees or submit a signed, complete application to proceed without prepaying fees. The court said no summons would issue yet and warned that the action would be dismissed if he did not comply.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also ruled that an appeal from this order would not qualify for fee-waiver status because it would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Hickman v. Biben · No. 1:24-cv-02731
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 11, 2024
Background
Quandell Hickman, who is incarcerated at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island and is representing himself, brought this civil action against Ellen Biben, identified in the caption as a judge, and other defendants. He submitted a prisoner authorization form and an application to proceed without prepaying filing fees, but the application was incomplete: its second page was missing, it lacked required information, and it was unsigned.
Order
The court ordered Hickman to do one of two things within 30 days of the order: pay $405 in filing fees, consisting of a $350 filing fee and a $55 administrative fee, or submit an amended application to proceed without prepaying fees. The amended application must be labeled with docket number 24-CV-2731 (LTS). The court stated that no summons would issue at that time and that the action would be dismissed if Hickman failed to comply within the allowed period.
The order also included a warning about potential filing-fee consequences under the federal prisoner-litigation statute if a future dismissal were based on frivolousness, maliciousness, or failure to state a claim. Judge Laura Taylor Swain certified that an appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for an appeal. This order addressed filing requirements and fee status; it did not decide the underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.