Case ID: f-appx_563/html/0165-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In re Craig SAUNDERS, Petitioner.
    No. 14-1538.
    United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
    Submitted Pursuant to Rule 21, Fed. R.App. P. March 27, 2014.
    Filed: April 7, 2014.
    Craig Saunders, Bellefonte, PA, pro se.
    Robert D. Aversa, Esq., Amanda C. Shoffel, Esq., City of Philadelphia Law Department, Philadelphia, PA, for Defendant-Respondent.
    Before: AMBRO, CHAGARES and VANASKIE, Circuit Judges.
   OPINION

PER CURIAM.

In an earlier appeal, Craig Saunders, a state prisoner, was permitted to proceed in forma pauperis. At that time, Saunders was notified that he was required to pay the full $455 fee in installments regardless of the outcome of his appeal and the warden was directed to collect and forward the fee to the District Court Clerk in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b). Saunders v. Phila. Dist. Att’y’s Office, C.A. No. 13-1951 (order entered May 6, 2013). Subsequently, we summarily affirmed the judgment that Saunders challenged. Saunders v. Phila. Dist. Att’y’s Office, 546 Fed.Appx. 68 (3d Cir.2013).

Saunders now presents a petition for a writ of mandamus. He asks us to order the District Court Clerk to refund the fee that has been remitted and to order the warden to cease deducting funds from Saunders’s inmate account to pay the fee. He argues that he is entitled to such relief because we took summary action on his appeal.

Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy. See Kerr v. U.S. Dist. Court, 426 U.S. 394, 402, 96 S.Ct. 2119, 48 L.Ed.2d 725 (1976). To obtain mandamus relief, a petitioner must show that “(1) no other adequate means exist to attain the relief he desires, (2) the party’s right to issuance of the writ is clear and indisputable, and (3) the writ is appropriate under the circumstances.” Hollingsworth v. Perry, 558 U.S. 183, 190, 130 S.Ct. 705, 175 L.Ed.2d 657 (2010) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Saunders cannot satisfy this standard.

Among other things, Saunders has no right to the relief he requests. As he was notified, he is responsible for the fee for his appeal regardless of its outcome. See Porter v. Dep’t of the Treasury, 564 F.3d 176, 179-80 (3d Cir.2009) (outlining the purposes of the filing and docketing fees and explaining that appellants are not entitled to their return). Once Saunders was granted leave to proceed in forma pauper-is, he became obligated to pay the full fee. See id. at 180 n. 4. That we took summary action before full briefing did not relieve him of his obligation. Accordingly, we deny Saunders’s petition.