McNees v. Oliver

• Court: District Court, D. Nevada
• Decided: July 26, 2023
• Docket: 2:23-cv-01121
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 2 3 3 CHARLES MCNEES, DAVID Case No.: 2:23-cv-01121-APG-DJA 4 BRESSELSMITH, and TONEY A. WHITE, 4 5 Plaintiff, ORDER 5 6 v. 6 7 RONALD OLIVER, et al., 7 8 Defendants. 8 9 On July 18, 2023, pro se plaintiffs Charles McNees, David Bresselsmith, and 9 10 Toney A. White, inmates in the custody of the Nevada Department of Corrections, 10 11 submitted a complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. (ECF No. 1-1). A couple days later, the 11 12 plaintiffs filed an amended complaint. (ECF No. 3). A few days after that, Bresselsmith 12 13 submitted an application to proceed in forma pauperis. (ECF No. 5). Neither McNees 13 14 nor White submitted applications to proceed in forma pauperis. Bresselsmith’s 14 15 application to proceed in forma pauperis is incomplete because Bresselsmith did not 15 16 include a completed financial certificate and an inmate trust fund account statement for 16 17 the previous six-month period with his application. The Court will deny Bresselsmith’s 17 18 application without prejudice and give Bresselsmith the opportunity to correct these 18 19 deficiencies by September 22, 2023. Additionally, both McNees and White need to file 19 20 fully complete applications to proceed in forma pauperis by September 22, 2023. 20 21 I. DISCUSSION 21 22 The United States District Court for the District of Nevada must collect filing fees 22 23 from parties initiating civil actions. 28 U.S.C. § 1914(a). The fee for filing a civil-rights 23 24 action is $402, which includes the $350 filing fee and the $52 administrative fee. See 28 24 25 U.S.C. § 1914(b). “Any person who is unable to prepay the fees in a civil case may apply 25 26 to the court for leave to proceed in forma pauperis.” Nev. Loc. R. Prac. LSR 1-1. For an 26 27 inmate to apply for in forma pauperis status, the inmate must submit all three of the 27 28 following documents to the Court: (1) a completed Application to Proceed in Forma 28 2 signed by the inmate twice on page 3; (2) a completed Financial Certificate, which is 2 3 page 4 of the Court’s approved form, that is properly signed by both the inmate and a 3 4 prison or jail official; and (3) a copy of the inmate’s prison or jail trust fund account 4 5 statement for the previous six-month period. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1)–(2); Nev. 5 6 Loc. R. Prac. LSR 1-2. In forma pauperis status does not relieve an inmate of his or her 6 7 obligation to pay the filing fee, it just means that the inmate can pay the fee in installments. 7 8 See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b). 8 9 Although only one filing fee needs to be paid per case, if multiple plaintiffs seek to 9 10 proceed in forma pauperis, each plaintiff must qualify for in forma pauperis status. See 10 11 Spencer v. Soc. Sec. Admin., No. 2:20-CV-01304-BNW, 2020 WL 5502159, at *1 (D. 11 12 Nev. Sept. 10, 2020). 12 13 As explained above, Bresselsmith’s application to proceed in forma pauperis is 13 14 incomplete. The Court will therefore deny Bresselsmith’s application to proceed in forma 14 15 pauperis without prejudice and grant him an extension of time to file a new fully complete 15 16 application to proceed in forma pauperis with all three required documents. McNees and 16 17 White also need to file fully complete applications to proceed in forma pauperis in this 17 18 case. Alternatively, Bresselsmith, McNees, and White may choose to pay the full $402 18 19 filing fee for this case. 19 20 II. CONCLUSION 20 21 It is therefore ordered that Bresselsmith’s application to proceed in forma pauperis 21 22 (ECF No. 5) is denied without prejudice. 22 23 It is further ordered that McNees, Bresselsmith, and White have until September 23 24 22, 2023, to either pay the full $402 filing fee or each file new fully complete application 24 25 to proceed in forma pauperis with all three required documents: (1) a completed 25 26 application with the inmate’s two signatures on page 3, (2) a completed financial 26 27 certificate that is signed both by the inmate and the prison or jail official, and (3) a copy 27 28 of the inmate’s trust fund account statement for the previous six-month period. 28 2 dismissal without prejudice if they fail to timely comply with this order. A dismissal without 2 3 prejudice allows McNees, Bresselsmith, and White to refile the case with the Court, under 3 4 a new case number, when they can file complete individual applications to proceed in 4 5 forma pauperis or pay the required filing fee. 5 6 The Clerk of the Court is directed to send Plaintiffs McNees, Bresselsmith, and 6 7 White the approved form applications to proceed in forma pauperis for an inmate and 7 8 instructions for the same and retain the amended complaint (ECF No. 3) but not file it at 8 9 this time. 9 10 10 DATED this 26th day of July 2023. 11 11 12 12 13 13 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 27 28 28