Williams v. Larock
Williams v. Larock
Opinion
Keenan M. Williams appeals the district court’s order dismissing his Bivens * action without prejudice for failure to pay the initial partial filing fee required under the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”), 28 U.S.C.A. § 1915(b)(1)(A) (2000). The district court ordered Williams to make a partial payment under the PLRA within thirty days after its order of November 29, 2004. On January 18, 2005, not having received the partial payment, the district court dismissed Williams’ action.
On appeal, Williams argues that he followed the proper procedures to authorize the prison officials to debit his PLRA payment from his inmate account and remit the payment to the district court. Williams had, in fact, timely filed the appropriate consent form to allow prison officials to withdraw the amount of the PLRA payment from his inmate account and forward it to the district court, and the prison’s inmate account transaction statement shows Williams’ inmate account contained adequate funds, to make the partial payment on the date it was due and for two weeks preceding the due date. However, prison officials did not deduct the initial partial PLRA payment from his inmate account until January 4, 2005. The district *333 court’s docket reveals that the payment was received and entered on January 19, 2005.
Because it appears that the untimeliness of Williams’ initial partial PLRA payment was through no fault of his own, we vacate the district court’s order dismissing his action and remand this case for further proceedings. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
VACATED AND REMANDED
Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.