United States District Court, D. New Jersey
SALAHUDDIN F. SMART, Plaintiff,
v.
TIMOTHY DALTON, ESQ., et al., Defendants.
Salahuddin F. Smart, No. 4351950 Camden County Department of
Corrections 330 Federal Street P.O. Box 90431 Camden, N.J.
08101 Plaintiff pro se
OPINION
NOEL
L. HILLMAN, U.S.D.J.
Plaintiff
Salahuddin F. Smart, an inmate presently incarcerated at the
Camden County Correctional Facility in Camden, New Jersey,
seeks to bring this civil action in forma pauperis,
without prepayment of fees or security, asserting a claim
pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See ECF Nos. 1
(Complaint), 1-1 (IFP application). At the time Plaintiff
submitted the Complaint, he also requested emergency
injunctive relief. In its Memorandum Opinion and Order
denying that request, the Court noted that Plaintiff's
IFP application was incomplete but “in the interest of
justice, dispense[d] with the review of Plaintiff's IFP
application in light of his request for emergency injunctive
relief for the limited purpose of assessing that
request.” ECF No. 3. With the resolution of
Plaintiff's request for emergency relief, the Court will
now address his request to proceed in forma
pauperis.
Pursuant
to Local Civil Rule 54.3, the Clerk shall not be required to
enter any suit, file any paper, issue any process, or render
any other service for which a fee is prescribed, unless the
fee is paid in advance. Under certain circumstances, however,
this Court may permit an indigent plaintiff to proceed in
forma pauperis.
The
entire fee to be paid in advance of filing a civil complaint
is $400. That fee includes a filing fee of $350 plus an
administrative fee of $50, for a total of $400. A prisoner
who is granted in forma pauperis status will,
instead, be assessed a filing fee of $350 and will not be
responsible for the $50 administrative fee. A prisoner who is
denied in forma pauperis status must pay the full
$400, including the $350 filing fee and the $50
administrative fee, before the complaint will be filed.
Title
28, section 1915 of the United States Code establishes
certain financial requirements for prisoners who are
attempting to bring a civil action in forma
pauperis. Under § 1915, a prisoner seeking to bring
a civil action in forma pauperis must submit an
affidavit, including a statement of all assets and
liabilities, which states that the prisoner is unable to pay
the fee. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1). The prisoner also must
submit a certified copy of his inmate trust fund account
statement(s) for the six-month period immediately preceding
the filing of his complaint. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2). The
prisoner must obtain this certified statement from the
appropriate official of each correctional facility at which
he was or is confined during such six-month period.
Id.
If the
prisoner is granted in forma pauperis status, the
prisoner must pay the full amount of the filing fee, in
installments, as follows. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). In
each month that the amount in the prisoner's account
exceeds $10.00, until the filing fee is paid, the agency
having custody of the prisoner shall assess, deduct from the
prisoner's account, and forward to the Clerk of the Court
an installment payment equal to 20% of the preceding
month's income credited to the prisoner's account. 28
U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2).
Plaintiff
may not have known when he submitted his Complaint that he
must pay the filing fee, and that even if the full filing
fee, or any part of it, has been paid, the Court must dismiss
the case if it finds that the action: (1) is frivolous or
malicious; (2) fails to state a claim upon which relief may
be granted; or (3) seeks monetary relief against a defendant
who is immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. §
1915(e)(2)(B) (in forma pauperis actions). See
also 28 U.S.C. § 1915A (dismissal of actions in
which prisoner seeks redress from a governmental defendant).
If the Court dismisses the case for any of these reasons,
§ 1915 does not suspend installment payments of the
filing fee or permit the prisoner to get back the filing fee,
or any part of it, that has already been paid.
If the
prisoner has, on three or more prior occasions while
incarcerated, brought in federal court an action or appeal
that was dismissed on the grounds that it was frivolous or
malicious, or that it failed to state a claim upon which
relief may be granted, he cannot bring another action in
forma pauperis unless he is in imminent danger of
serious physical injury. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
In this
action, Plaintiff seeks to proceed in forma
pauperis, but he failed to include the required
certification of his prison account statement, which is
required by 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(2) (“A prisoner
seeking to bring a civil action . . . in a civil action . . .
without prepayment of fees or security therefor . . . shall
submit a certified copy of the trust fund account statement
(or institutional equivalent) for the prisoner for the
6-month period immediately preceding the filing of the
complaint or notice of appeal, obtained from the appropriate
official of each prison at which the prisoner is or was
confined.”). See ECF No. 1-1 (IFP
application). Plaintiff will need to provide a certified
account statement from the immediately preceding six months
before the Court may consider his application to proceed
in forma pauperis.
CONCLUSION
For the
reasons set forth above, the Clerk of the Court will be
ordered to administratively terminate this action, without
filing the Complaint or assessing a filing fee.[1] Plaintiff will be
granted leave to apply to re-open within thirty (30) days. An
appropriate Order follows.
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