Downey v. United States of America
- Haywood Gilliam
- 4:19-cv-03717
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Downey v. United States of America, Judge Gilliam dismissed the action without prejudice after Mark Downey failed to amend or prosecute it.
Mark Downey’s action against the United States of America and the other named defendants was dismissed without prejudice because he did not file an amended complaint or respond to the court’s order to show cause.
What happened
In Downey v. United States of America, the court had denied Mark Downey’s request to proceed without paying the filing fee and dismissed his complaint with permission to amend. The court gave him until October 21, 2019, to file an amended complaint.
Downey did not file an amended complaint and did not respond to the court’s later order asking why the case should not be dismissed for lack of prosecution. The court received no further communication from him.
Judge Gilliam dismissed the action without prejudice under Rule 41(b) for failure to prosecute and directed the clerk to close the file. The court did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Downey v. United States of America · No. 4:19-cv-03717
- Haywood Gilliam
- Dec. 2, 2019
Background
On September 23, 2019, the court denied Mark Downey’s motion to proceed without paying the filing fee and dismissed his complaint with leave to amend. The court ordered him to file an amended complaint by October 21, 2019, and warned that failure to meet the deadline could result in dismissal of the entire action without further leave to amend.
Downey did not file an amended complaint after the deadline passed. He also did not respond to the court’s order to show cause why the case should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute. The court stated that it had received no further communications from him.
Ruling
The court relied on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b), which permits dismissal when a plaintiff fails to prosecute an action or comply with court rules or orders. The court found that Downey was unable or unwilling to adequately prosecute the case. It therefore dismissed the action without prejudice under Rule 41(b) for failure to prosecute and directed the clerk to close the file. The order did not resolve the merits of Downey’s underlying claims.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.