(PC) Lewis v. Bitter ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 TERRY LEWIS, Case No. 1:19-cv-00840-BAM (PC) 12 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM FILING FEE 13 v. (ECF No. 29) 14 BITER, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Plaintiff Terry Lewis (“Plaintiff”), a state prisoner proceeding pro se and in forma 18 pauperis in this civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 19 Currently before the Court is Plaintiff’s motion for relief from the filing fee in this action, 20 filed March 6, 2020. (ECF No. 29.) In his motion, Plaintiff requests that the Court call the prison 21 and refund money to his trust account that was withdrawn to pay for the filing fee in this action 22 and in a prior action, now closed, that he filed in the Eastern District, Case No. 1:19-cv-01094- 23 LJO-GSA. Plaintiff argues that in his other action, he was informed when the action was closed 24 that the judge in that case ordered the prison not to withdraw money from his account twice to 25 pay for the filing fees in that action and the instant action. Plaintiff states that he has informed 26 prison officials of the court’s order but they have refused to refund his money. (Id.) 27 Earlier in this case, the Court granted Plaintiff’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis. 28 (ECF No. 11.) It was explained to Plaintiff that he was obligated to pay the statutory filing fee of 1 $350.00 for this action, in monthly payments of twenty percent of the preceding month’s income 2 credited to his trust account. (Id. at 2.) The Director of the California Department of Corrections 3 or his designee was ordered to send to the Clerk of the court payments from Plaintiff’s account 4 each time the amount in the account exceeds $10.00, until the statutory filing fee is paid in full. 5 (Id. (citing 28 U.S. § 1915(b)(2))). The entire $350.00 filing fee is statutorily required, and must 6 be collected from Plaintiff’s institutional account regardless of the outcome of this action. See, 7 e.g., Myers v. Pulido, No. 1:16-cv-00638-SAB-PC, 2016 WL 6723937, at *1 (E.D. Cal. Nov. 14, 8 2016). As a result, Plaintiff’s motion to be relieved of the obligation to pay this fee is denied. To 9 the extent Plaintiff is requesting that the Court order relief from payment of his filing fee in 10 another action, that request should be filed in that specific case.1 11 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiff’s motion for relief from filing fee 12 (ECF No. 29) is DENIED. 13 IT IS SO ORDERED. 14 15 Dated: March 16, 2020 /s/ Barbara A. McAuliffe _ UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 1 The Court notes that Plaintiff has filed an identical motion in Case No. 1:19-cv-01094-LJO- GSA. That motion will be addressed by the assigned Magistrate Judge or District Judge in that 28 action.