Wood v. Chidi
- James Donato
- 3:19-cv-04202
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
Wood v. Chidi and Wood v. Williams were dismissed without prejudice for failing to follow court orders, Judge Donato ruled.
Andrea Wood’s two actions were dismissed without prejudice; the opinion does not decide her underlying claims.
What happened
In Wood v. Chidi and the related Wood v. Williams case, the court had dismissed Andrea Wood’s complaints with permission to amend and ordered her to respond by May 1, 2020.
Wood did not file amended complaints, respond, or otherwise communicate with the court about either case. The court therefore dismissed both actions without prejudice for failure to follow court orders and failure to pursue the cases.
Judge Donato entered the dismissals on May 15, 2020, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). The court did not decide the underlying claims.
The detailed version
- Wood v. Chidi · No. 3:19-cv-04202
- James Donato
- May 15, 2020
Background
The opinion addresses two actions brought by Andrea Wood. On March 31, 2020, the court dismissed the complaints with leave to amend, meaning Wood was allowed to file amended complaints. The court ordered her to file amended complaints or otherwise respond by May 1, 2020.
Reason for dismissal
Wood did not file amended complaints, did not otherwise respond by the deadline, and had not communicated with the court about her cases. The court considered the factors identified in Malone v. United States Postal Service and found that they did not weigh against dismissal.
Ruling
The court dismissed both actions without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to follow the court’s orders and for lack of prosecution. “Without prejudice” means the order itself did not bar refiling. The court did not reach the merits of Wood’s underlying claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.