Moore v. Gregory et al

Filing 22

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER: IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff's request for return of his filing fees [Doc. #18] is DENIED AS MOOT. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that plaintiff's request to enjoin the Cape Girardeau County Jail from opening his mail from the District Court is DENIED. Signed by District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on 7/19/2018. (JMC)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI
SOUTHEASTERN DIVISION
QUINTAYUS D. MOORE

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Plaintiff,
v.
JOSHUA GREGORY, et al.,
Defendants.

No. 1:18-CV-112 AGF

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
This matter is before the Court on plaintiff’s motion regarding payment of his appellate
and District Court filing fees. After review of the financial documents in this case, the Court will
explain the payment of fees to plaintiff and deny his request for return of his filing fees as moot.
For ease of reference, the Court will once again recount the history of the assessment of
filing fees in this action. Plaintiff, a prisoner, was assessed an initial partial filing fee of $1.00 in
this Court, pursuant to Henderson v. Norris, 129 F.3d 481, 484 (8th Cir. 1997), on May 17, 2018.
[Doc. #5] On May 29, 2018, plaintiff sought leave to have his initial partial filing fee removed
from his prison account. [Doc. #7]
The Court granted plaintiff’s request on June 4, 2018, ordering that the agency having
custody of plaintiff begin making payments to the District Court until the full filing fee of
$350.00 was paid in full, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2). [Doc. #11] Section
1915(b)(2) states that the agency having custody of the prisoner will deduct payments and
forward them to the Court each time the amount in the prison account exceeds $10.00.
Plaintiff appealed the stay entered in this action on May 30, 2018, and he filed a motion
to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal on that same date. [Doc. #8 and #10] The Court granted
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plaintiff’s request to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal on June 4, 2018, and at that time, the
Court assessed an initial partial appellate filing fee of $1.00. Plaintiff was instructed to begin
making remittances for his appellate filing fee of $505.00 to the District Court. [Doc. #13]
The District Court’s Finance Department noted, on July 11, 2018, that the Cape
Girardeau County Jail had sent a check to the Court in an amount of $331.34 in order to pay
plaintiff’s District Court filing fee. The Jail acted incorrectly in doing so, and the Finance
Department sent the money back to the Jail to be placed back in plaintiff’s account on July 11,
2018. [Doc. #20] The Jail was then instructed to provide the Court with two separate checks, in
the amount of $1.00 each, for payment of both plaintiff’s initial partial filing fee for the District
Court’s fee and the Appellate court filing fee. As of today’s date, the Court has not received the
remittances.
As explained to plaintiff and the Jail by this Court and the Finance Department, 28
U.S.C. § 1915(b)(2) provides that the agency having custody of the prisoner will deduct
payments and forward them to the Court each time the amount in his prison account exceeds
$10.00. This will be done in order to pay both the District Court’s fee and the Eighth Circuit
filing fee. Unfortunately, these filing fees may not be waived, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §
1915(b)(1).1
Accordingly,

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To the extent plaintiff is seeking to enjoin the Cape Girardeau County Jail from opening the mail
he receives from the Court, the District Court must deny his request. APrivileged prisoner mail, that
is mail to or from an inmate's attorney and identified as such, may not be opened . . . except in
the presence of the prisoner.@ Jensen v. Klecker, 648 F.2d 1179, 1182 (8th Cir. 1981). However,
“[m]ail from the courts, as contrasted to mail from a prisoner’s lawyer, is not legal mail.” Keenan
v. Hall, 83 F.3d 1083, 1094 (9th Cir. 1996).
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that plaintiff=s request for return of his filing fees [Doc.
#18] is DENIED AS MOOT.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that plaintiff’s request to enjoin the Cape Girardeau
County Jail from opening his mail from the District Court is DENIED.
Dated this 19th day of July, 2018.

AUDREY G. FLEISSIG
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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