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D. Minn.Procedural orderFiled Aug. 26, 2024

King v. Bellinger

Judge
John Docherty
Docket
0:24-cv-02432
Court
U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
Pages
2
Civil Procedure
In one sentence

In King v. Bellinger, Magistrate Judge Docherty recommended dismissing the action without prejudice because Arron King failed to prosecute.

Who this affects

Arron King and this action; the magistrate judge recommended dismissal without prejudice, but the document was not a final order or judgment.

What happened

In King v. Bellinger, the court had ordered Arron King to submit an application to proceed without paying the full filing fee or a facility trust-account statement. The documents were needed to calculate his initial partial filing fee.

The 21-day deadline passed, and King did not submit the required documents or otherwise communicate with the court. The court treated this failure as a failure to prosecute, meaning failure to move the case forward.

Magistrate Judge John F. Docherty recommended that the action be dismissed without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). The recommendation was not a final order or judgment, and the notice gave the parties 14 days to file written objections.

The detailed version

For law students, journalists, and other readers who want the full reasoning

Case
King v. Bellinger · No. 0:24-cv-02432
Judge
John F. Docherty
Date
Aug. 26, 2024

Background

In an earlier order dated July 19, 2024, the court directed Arron King to submit either an application to proceed without paying the full filing fee or a facility trust-account statement. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b), that information was needed to calculate his initial partial filing fee.

The court gave King 21 days to provide the required material and warned that failing to do so would lead to a recommendation that the action be dismissed without prejudice for failure to prosecute. Failure to prosecute means failing to take required steps to move a case forward.

Ruling Recommended

The deadline passed, and King had not submitted the required documentation. The court also stated that he had not communicated with the court about the case since starting it. The court therefore recommended dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to prosecute.

The recommended dismissal was without prejudice, meaning the recommendation did not bar a later filing on that basis. This document was a Report and Recommendation rather than a final district-court order or judgment. The notice stated that it was not directly appealable to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and that a party could file specific written objections within 14 days after being served with the recommendation.

The authoritative version

Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.

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