Lindsey v. Swanson
- Susan Nelson
- 0:11-cv-03674
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 2
In Lindsey v. Swanson, Judge Nelson dismissed the case without prejudice because Lindsey did not respond to orders requiring him to continue.
Dale Lindsey’s case was dismissed without prejudice, and his application to proceed without paying filing fees, preliminary-injunction and temporary-restraining-order motion, and declaratory-judgment motion were denied as moot.
What happened
Lindsey v. Swanson had been paused for more than ten years while another case was resolved. Before the pause ended, the court twice ordered Dale Lindsey to say whether he intended to continue the case.
The court had warned that the case would be dismissed if Lindsey did not respond within 21 days. He did not respond, so the court dismissed the case without prejudice for failing to prosecute it.
Judge Susan Richard Nelson also denied as moot Lindsey’s applications to proceed without paying filing fees, request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order, and motion for a declaratory judgment.
The detailed version
- Lindsey v. Swanson · No. 0:11-cv-03674
- Susan Nelson
- Oct. 3, 2022
Background
The case had been stayed for more than a decade while the court awaited the resolution of Karsjens v. Minnesota Department of Human Services. After judgment was entered in that case, the stay in Lindsey’s case was lifted.
Before the stay was lifted, the court twice directed Dale Lindsey to notify it whether he intended to continue prosecuting the case. In its second order, the court gave Lindsey 21 days to respond and warned that failure to do so would result in dismissal without prejudice for failure to prosecute under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). The deadline passed, and Lindsey did not respond to either order.
Ruling
The court dismissed the action without prejudice under Rule 41(b) for failure to prosecute. A dismissal without prejudice does not bar refiling the action based on the dismissal itself. The court also denied as moot three motions Lindsey had filed when the case began: his application to proceed without paying filing fees, his motion for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order, and his motion for a declaratory judgment. The court directed that judgment be entered.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.