Duaut A. Duamutef, Alden, New York, pro se , for Plaintiff-Appellant . Dennis C. Vacco, Attorney General of the State of New York, Peter H. Schiff, Deputy Solicitor General, Peter G. Crary and Martin A. Hotvet, Assistant Attorneys General, Albany, New York, for Defendants-Appellees . Duaut Duamutef, pro se , in forma pauperis , and incarcerated, appeals from Judge McAvoy's grant of summary judgment in favor of New York corrections officials Superintendent John O'Keefe, Lieutenant Thomas Skipper, and Hearing Officer Brian Huckeba, all of the Gouverneur Correctional Facility. Duamutef also asserted that Skipper threatened him with further disciplinary action and a transfer to a maximum security prison if Duamutef did not abandon the petition effort. Appellees argue that Duamutef's confinement in the prison's Special Housing Unit was justified under prison regulations by his circulation of the petition.
Defendants deny that the prison transfer was retaliatory.
Chief Judge McAvoy adopted the report, and judgment was entered dismissing the complaint on March 19, 1996. If applicable, the PLRA would require dismissal of this appeal unless Duamutef submits an appropriate authorization form allowing collection of an initial partial filing fee and authorizing subsequent payments from appellant's prison account until the full fee is paid. We held recently that the PLRA's fee provisions did apply to appeals in which a prisoner has been granted in forma pauperis status by the district court, even if the notice of appeal was filed before the PLRA was signed into law. Subsequently, we held that where an appeal was submitted for decision before the PLRA was enacted, the prisoner would not be required to satisfy the PLRA's fee provisions. Therefore, Duamutef's appeal was fully briefed before either party had notice that the fee provisions of the PLRA could be applied retroactively.