Sultan v. Ferroglio

Dist. Ct. abused its discretion in dismissing plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging various 8th Amendment violations against defendant-prison due to fact that plaintiff had failed to pay $2.02 initial partial filing fee. While plaintiff’s prison account, from which fee would have been paid, had less than zero balance at time Dist. Ct. had ordered said payment, record showed that plaintiff had made various attempts to have prison authorities forward said amount to Dist. Ct., and law otherwise required prison authorities to process plaintiff’s request, where plaintiff had sued prison. As such, and in absence of evidence that plaintiff had intentionally depleted his trust account to avoid paying filing fee, plaintiff should not have been penalized where prison authorities had failed to forward $2.02 filing fee as directed by Dist. Ct. order.