Opinion
Case Number: 05-cv-74897, Case Number: 05-cv-74662.
February 9, 2006
Petitioner David Sarmiento, a state inmate currently incarcerated at the Florence Crane Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan, filed a habeas corpus petition on December 8, 2005. That petition (First Petition) was assigned to the undersigned District Judge and assigned Case Number 05-cv-74662. Almost three weeks later, an identical habeas corpus petition (Second Petition) was filed with the Court and assigned to the Honorable Avern Cohn and assigned Case Number 05-cv-74897. The Second Petition was reassigned to the undersigned District Judge, pursuant to Local Rule 83.11, as a companion case to the First Petition. See Order Regarding Reassignment of Companion Case, Jan. 19, 2006.
When Petitioner filed the First Petition, he did not submit the $5.00 filing fee or an application to proceed in forma pauperis. The Court, therefore, issued an Order to Correct Deficiency, requiring Petitioner either to pay the $5.00 filing fee or to submit an application to proceed in form pauperis. Petitioner then filed the Second Petition, which was accompanied by the $5.00 filing fee. The Court concludes that, rather than filing a Second Petition, Petitioner intended to correct the deficiency in the First Petition by paying the $5.00 filing fee. Therefore, the pending Second Petition is duplicative of the First Petition and shall be dismissed without prejudice.
Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the petition filed in Case Number 05-cv-74897 is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
The Court has determined that the filing fee paid in Case Number 05-cv-74897 was intended to cure the deficiency in Case Number 05-cv-74662. Therefore, the Court ORDERS the Clerk of Court to credit the $5.00 filing fee paid in Case Number 05-cv-74897 to Case Number 05-cv-74662.