Summary
The Tenth District Court of Appeals of Ohio dismissed Willie Lagway’s mandamus action against the Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The court held that Lagway failed to strictly comply with R.C. 2969.25(C) by omitting a cashier-certified six-month inmate-account statement and also failed to prepay the required filing fees under R.C. 2969.22. The court adopted the magistrate’s decision, overruled the objections, and dismissed the action sua sponte, with pending motions dismissed as moot.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the court may sua sponte dismiss a mandamus action for noncompliance with the mandatory inmate filing requirements of R.C. 2969.25(C).
- Whether an inmate may cure noncompliance with R.C. 2969.25(C) by later withdrawing the affidavit of indigency and paying the filing fee.
Holdings
- An appellate court may dismiss sua sponte an inmate's civil action for failure to strictly comply with the mandatory filing requirements of R.C. 2969.25(C).
- Noncompliance with R.C. 2969.25(C) cannot be cured by later withdrawing the affidavit of indigency and paying the filing fee; documents supporting a fee-waiver request must be part of the initial filing.
Key quotations
“Strict compliance with R.C. 2969.25(C) is required. See, e.g., State ex rel. Martin v. McCormick, 2025-Ohio-4398, ¶ 10, citing State ex rel. Townsend v. Gaul, 2024- Ohio-1128, ¶ 8. “Substantial compliance is not sufficient.”” (¶ 9)
“We have previously held that documents supporting a fee-waiver request affidavit under R.C. 2969.25(C) “must be part of the initial filing of the petition and cannot later be added or amended to the petition.”” (¶ 12)
Factual background
Relator Willie Lagway, an inmate in an Ohio correctional institution, filed a mandamus complaint seeking an order directing the Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to correct the calculation of his prison sentence. Along with his complaint, Lagway filed an affidavit of indigency seeking waiver of filing fees, but the affidavit did not contain a certified statement of his inmate account balance for the preceding six months as required by R.C. 2969.25(C)(1).
Procedural history
Relator filed mandamus complaint; magistrate recommended sua sponte dismissal for noncompliance with R.C. 2969.25(C); relator objected; court of appeals adopted magistrate's decision and dismissed.