State Ex Rel. Baker v. Cook

Plaintiff, a prisoner at the Snake River Correctional Institution, appeals the trial court’s denial of his petition for a writ of mandamus. We write only to discuss the court’s action in requiring him, as part of the judgment of dismissal, to pay filing fees of $167; it had previously deferred payment of those fees. The state concedes that the trial court erred, and we agree.

When plaintiff filed his petition, he attached an Affidavit of Indigency, in which he stated that: he had $22.48 in a Department of Corrections trust account; he had no net income over the previous 12 months; he had no…