Glendora v. John Porzio
Headline: Court blocks repeat filer's ability to file without paying fees in civil cases, denies her free-filing status, and bars future unpaid petitions unless she pays fees and follows filing rules by March 30, 1998.
Holding: The Court denied Glendora permission to file without paying fees, required payment and Rule 33.1 compliance by March 30, 1998, and barred further unpaid civil petitions unless she complies.
- Stops Glendora from filing civil cert petitions without paying fees.
- Requires payment of docketing fees and compliance with filing rules by March 30, 1998.
- Clerk instructed not to accept her future unpaid noncriminal petitions.
Summary
Background
A pro se litigant named Glendora brought claims arising from a dispute with her landlord. She said the landlord’s lawyers used “sewer service” and that a state trial judge accepted affidavits of service. She sued in federal court under federal civil-rights laws alleging denial of due process and a conspiracy, but the District Court dismissed her claims and the Court of Appeals called her appeal frivolous and denied her request to proceed without paying fees.
Reasoning
The central question was whether Glendora should be allowed to file a petition here without paying the normal docketing fees and while continuing a pattern of filings the Court deemed frivolous. The Court found that she has filed many petitions since 1994, including a prior denial of free filing in 1997, and described the current petition as frivolous. For those reasons, the Court denied her leave to proceed without paying fees, gave her until March 30, 1998 to pay fees and submit a compliant petition, and ordered the Clerk not to accept future unpaid civil petitions from her unless she meets fee and filing requirements.
Real world impact
This order directly restricts Glendora’s ability to file new civil petitions in this Court without paying fees and following the Court’s filing rules. It does not decide the underlying dispute with the landlord on the merits. The ruling enforces fee and filing requirements against a litigant the Court finds repeatedly files frivolous petitions.
Dissents or concurrances
Justice Stevens dissented, referring to arguments he made in an earlier case about similar fee and filing rules and expressing his disagreement with the Court’s action.
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