Opinion ID: 164119
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: plaintiff's payment history

Text: 17 When Plaintiff filed his complaint on February 7, 2000, the district court granted him leave to proceed without prepayment of fees and without payment of an initial partial filing fee because there were insufficient funds in his inmate account. In accordance with § 1915(b)(2), the district court entered an order stating: 18 Plaintiff remains obligated to pay the full amount of the required $150.00 filing fee pursuant to § 1915(b)(1) regardless of the outcome of this action. It is 19 FURTHER ORDERED that, until the $150.00 filing fee is paid in full, [Plaintiff] shall make monthly payments to the court of twenty (20) percent of the preceding month's income credited to his account or show cause why he has no assets and no means by which to make each monthly payment. [Plaintiff] is directed to make the necessary arrangements to have the monthly payments identified by the civil action number on this order. In order to show cause, the plaintiff must file a current certified copy of his trust fund account statement. It is 20 FURTHER ORDERED that if [Plaintiff] fails to have the appropriate monthly payment sent to the clerk of the court each month or to show cause each month as directed above why he has no assets and no means by which to make the monthly payment, the Prisoner's Civil Rights Complaint may be dismissed without prejudice and without further notice. 21 R. Vol. I, Doc. 11, at 2-3.
22 The following discussion details Plaintiff's repeated failure to remit the required payments when he had funds available, even while he made discretionary purchases that drained his account. In summary, we will see that during the course of this litigation Plaintiff received income of $288.83, but, even after several court orders directing him to make the required payments, he paid the district court a total of only $7.14. 23 At the outset Plaintiff made no monthly payments for several months, but he justified this failure to pay by submitting monthly statements of his inmate account showing only $5.00 in income during this period and no balance over $10.00. In November and December 2000, however, he neither made a payment nor submitted an account statement. On January 25, 2001, the district court issued an order to show cause, giving him fifteen days to make the required monthly payment or explain why he was unable to pay. Id., Doc. 60. The order expressly warned Plaintiff that failure to comply with the order could result in the dismissal of his action without further notice. Id. at 2. 24 Plaintiff mailed his response to the show cause order on January 31, 2001. He attached his past-due account statements, which revealed that he had received a money order deposit of $20.00 on November 20, 2000, and a check deposit of $12.28 on December 15, 2000. Id., Doc. 62, at 17. Yet Plaintiff had made no payments to the district court, as required by § 1915(b) and the district court's order, although he had spent at least $17.00 on discretionary purchases between November 27, 2000, and January 19, 2001. 1 25 In his response to the show cause order, Plaintiff stated that he had thought no more statements were due because the pretrial conference had been held. He apologized for his error and stated that he would not repeat it and would make payments as his financial ability allowed him. He also asked the court to take judicial notice that he had entered into the prison's 50/50 program and was attaching a copy of the agreement. No copy of the agreement was attached, although Plaintiff did attach an Institution Supplement, which contains an official description of procedures for implementing the program. That document suggests that the 50/50 program provides that half the prisoner's income will be used to pay certain prior debts, leaving the remainder for other use. 26 The district court discharged its order to show cause on April 12, 2001, reasoning that Plaintiff would be able to make regular payments toward the filing fee as a result of his participation in the 50/50 program. Id., Doc. 79, at 2. The district court expressly advised Plaintiff, however, that: 27 the law and the Court's previous Orders in this case require [Plaintiff] to make a monthly filing fee payment every month until the full filing fee is paid.... [Plaintiff] cannot voluntarily spend his monthly income, and then claim he is without funds to satisfy his federal court filing fee obligations. 28 Id. The district court again warned Plaintiff that his complaint was subject to dismissal if he did not make the required monthly payment or show cause why he could not do so. Id. 29 Unfortunately, the court's discharge of the show cause order was based on a Plaintiff-induced misconception. As revealed when Plaintiff later filed a 50/50 agreement executed by him on November 27, 2001, the 50/50 program is not available to pay debts arising under the PLRA. Id. Doc. 235, Exh. A; see magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation, Oct. 15, 2002, at 5 ([T]he [50/50] program does not encompass ... PLRA filing fees incurred by the prisoner....). 30 Not surprisingly, then, Plaintiff's promise to make payments on his filing fee was unfulfilled after he filed his response to the court's show cause order. Not only did he not make the required payments on his income in November and December 2000, but he also failed to make the required payment of $3.00 based on a $15.00 money order deposit to his inmate account in February. 31 Plaintiff next reported income in his financial report for July 2001. The report showed receipt of a $20.00 money order on July 23 and a $10.00 money order on July 25. In his filing Plaintiff asserted that the prison was failing to send payments to the district court when money was deposited to his account. Id. Doc. 109, at 2. He claimed that he had made numerous attempts to send in the proper withdrawal forms but they were returned, and that he had complained to the prison's financial offices but received no adequate reply. Id. 32 Plaintiff then failed to file the required October 2001 account statement, and the district court issued a second show cause order on November 21, 2001. Id., Doc. 140. Again, the district court warned Plaintiff that failure to comply could result in dismissal of his complaint without further notice. Id. at 2. 33 In response to the second show cause order, Plaintiff said that his financial report was delayed because he had been temporarily transferred to another institution, and that he had in fact sent in the report on November 16, before the show cause order had issued. (The report showed a November deposit of $6.20, giving him a new balance of $36.20, but he made no payment to the district court.) Id., Doc. 141, at 4. Plaintiff claimed in his response that he had signed the necessary withdrawal forms to authorize payment to the district court, and it was therefore the prison's fault that payments were not being made. Id., Doc. 145, at 2. 34 Plaintiff's next account statement shows that in December 2001 his $36.20 balance had dropped to $1.45, in part through discretionary purchases of $16.65. R. Vol. III, Doc. 154, at 4. Plaintiff then received a deposit of $15.00 on January 24, 2002. Id., Doc. 159, at 4. Plaintiff failed to make any payment toward his filing fee and complained again to the court that he was having trouble getting the prison to send payments, but he provided no further explanation. Id., Doc. 162, at 1. 35 Subsequent account statements show receipt of a $10.00 money order deposit on February 14, 2002, id., Doc. 163, at 4, a $20.00 money order deposit on April 9, 2002, a performance pay deposit of $23.52 on April 10, 2002, a $15.00 money order deposit on April 17th, id., Doc. 176, at 4, and a performance pay deposit of $26.04 on May 10, 2002. Thus, in the first five months of the year, Plaintiff received income of $109.56, from which he owed $21.91 (20% of $109.56) toward his filing fee. During that period he made discretionary purchases of $58.73, but still no filing fee payments. 36 On June 18, 2002, while the show cause order of November 21, 2001, was pending, Defendants filed a motion (the Motion to Dismiss), contending that the court should dismiss Plaintiff's complaint with prejudice as a sanction for his failure to comply with the court's numerous orders regarding filing fee payments. Id., Doc. 183. Defendants pointed out that Plaintiff had failed to make any payment toward his filing fee obligations in the twenty-eight months since he had filed his complaint, although he had received to date about $200.00 in income. Id. at 5-7. Defendants noted that Plaintiff had made numerous voluntary purchases throughout the litigation, rather than making payments to the district court. Id. at 7. 37 Apparently coincidentally, Plaintiff sent his first payment to the court in June. The prison check for $4.00 is dated June 21, 2002, but the withdrawal from his inmate account occurred on June 13, predating the Motion to Dismiss. Id., Doc. 186. 38 In response to Defendants' motion, Plaintiff again claimed that despite his frequent attempts to get prison authorities to make the necessary payments, the prison's financial and business officials were failing to do so. Id., Doc. 189, at 3, 10-13, and 14. He asserted that on August 28, 2001, he had authorized the prison's financial management to remove 20% from his account as money was deposited and that he was not required to sign any additional withdrawal forms. Id. at 4. 39 The letter Plaintiff attached as support for this claim, however, fails to substantiate his assertion that he had authorized withdrawals for filing fees in this case. His letter to the prison legal department did complain that the prison was failing to send payments to the court in this case, and it did say that he wanted the prison to send the filing fees to the district court whenever funds were available. Id. at 10-12. But the letter also stated that the prison should personally leave me the    alone, id. at 10, and directed the prison not to remove any of his funds without his authorization, id. at 12. And although the letter advised that Plaintiff was enclosing a withdrawal authorization form, id., no copy of such form is attached in the record copy. Likewise, a March 18, 2002, inmate request form attached to his response asked prison officials whether he needed to sign a new withdrawal authorization form, id. at 14, but this document does not support his claim that the prison was somehow impeding his ability to make the necessary payments. 40 Significantly, Plaintiff's failure to make the required monthly payments continued. After the Motion to Dismiss was filed, Plaintiff clearly was able to remit payments to the district court, and he does not contend otherwise. After all, he had sent in a $4.00 payment in June. This amount, however, was far less than the 20% of income that he owed. And he had the funds to pay more than the $4.00. Plaintiff's account statement shows that he had received a performance pay deposit of $25.20 on June 10 and a cash deposit of $13.99 on June 13. Id., Doc. 193, at 5-6. Nonetheless, rather than making the required filing fee payment, he made discretionary expenditures of $15.73 on June 13 and $15.05 on June 20, ending the month with a balance of $.55 in his account. 41 On July 11, 2002, Plaintiff made a second payment to the district court, of only $1.10. Id., Doc. 201. Plaintiff had received performance pay that month of $21.60, he had at least $10.80 available for his personal use, and he made discretionary purchases totaling at least $9.50; yet he sent the court far less than even the $7.84 he owed from his previous month's income of $39.19. Id., Doc. 204, at 6. This, while the Motion to Dismiss was pending. 42 On August 15, 2002, Plaintiff sent to the district court his third and final payment, a prison check for $2.04. This did not cover the $4.30 due out of his July income of $21.60, much less his arrearages due from prior income. Id., Doc. 215. Although Plaintiff had received money order deposits of $20.00 on August 12 and $10.00 on August 15, Doc. 217, at 5, Plaintiff once again failed to use the income available to him to make his required payments. 43 On October 15, 2002, the magistrate judge recommended dismissal with prejudice. Id., Doc. 222. The magistrate judge's report and recommendation thoroughly set forth Plaintiff's history of nonpayment and insufficient payment, and presented a detailed explanation and analysis of its findings and ultimate conclusion that only the extreme sanction of dismissal would satisfy the interests of justice. Id. This recommendation was adopted by the district court. Id., Doc. 237.