Lemberger v. Brown et al

Filing 20

MEMORANDUM Order Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 8/15/2011:Mailed notice(srn, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
MICHAEL LEMBERGER #654462,
Plaintiff,
v.
DOROTHY BROWN, Clerk of the
Circuit Court of Cook County,
Defendant.

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No.

11 C 1039

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Plaintiff Michael Lemberger (“Lemberger”) has just filed a
request that this action be dismissed for his failure to state a
viable claim, and this Court has so ordered.

Lemberger has also

filed a self-prepared communication complaining that the
institution where he is confined, Rushville Treatment and
Detention Facility (“Rushville”), has improperly remitted $2.60
from his trust account there without his authorization.

This

memorandum order addresses that subject.
Rushville cannot be faulted for having remitted those funds,
because that was done pursuant to this Court’s April 25, 2011
memorandum order (“Order”) that so directed in an application of
28 U.S.C. §1915 (“Section 1915”).

But Lemberger urges that he is

not a “prisoner” within the scope of that congressional dictate,
so that the transfer of funds was unauthorized.
This Court’s research has not uncovered any case within this
circuit dealing with Lemberger’s situation (he is subject to a
civil commitment order of the type made applicable to sexually

violent persons for the purpose of treatment).

But decisions by

other courts elsewhere that limit the concept of “prisoner” to
someone serving time for a criminal conviction appear to be
persuasive by analogy, and this Court will therefore accept
Lemberger’s contention.
1.

Accordingly:

This Court vacates the portion of the Order that

applied Section 1915’s installment-payment-of-the-filing-fee
provision to Lemberger.
2.

This District Court’s Clerk is ordered to refund

the $2.60 payment to Rushville, to be credited to
Lemberger’s trust account there.
3.

Rushville is ordered to make no further deductions

from Lemberger’s account to be applied toward any filing fee
for this action (in that respect, Lemberger qualifies for
non-prisoner in forma pauperis status).

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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date:

August 15, 2011

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