Johnson v. City of New York

Background

The court had previously dismissed Glenn Johnson’s action without prejudice because it duplicated another action pending in the Southern District of New York. Johnson had been granted permission to proceed without prepaying the filing fee as a prisoner. In the same earlier order, the court directed the Clerk of Court not to charge Johnson the $350 filing fee and directed the warden of the Vernon C. Bain Center not to deduct or reserve money from Johnson’s prison trust-fund account for this action.

The earlier order was supposed to be mailed to the warden, but the opinion states that it was not. On August 31, 2023, the court received $23.30 from Johnson’s prison trust-fund account as partial payment of the filing fee.

Rulings

Because the court had already ordered that no filing fee be collected for this duplicative action, it directed the Clerk of Court to refund the $23.30 to Johnson. It also directed the Clerk to mail the July 24, 2023 order and this order to Johnson and to the Superintendent of the Clinton Correctional Facility, where Johnson was then incarcerated. The court further instructed the Clerk not to collect any funds to pay the filing fee for this action.

The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal.

Disposition

The order directed a refund, prohibited collection of this action’s filing fee, and denied permission to proceed without paying fees on appeal. It did not address the merits of Johnson’s underlying claims.