Kahsai v. DeJoy

Background

Bereket Kahsai, a United States Postal Service employee representing himself, sued Louis DeJoy, identified in the caption as the United States Postmaster General, and the United States Postal Service. Kahsai alleged that his lack of promotion, exclusion from training opportunities, and reprimands in 2016 resulted from discrimination based on race, national origin, and appearance. He also alleged increased discrimination and retaliation after challenging the reprimands and filing an employment-discrimination complaint.

The complaint asserted nine claims, including claims involving discriminatory harassment, a hostile work environment, federal civil-rights statutes, the Rehabilitation Act, employment discrimination, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The opinion states that the factual allegations in this case were identical to those in Kahsai’s ongoing 2020 action, although the causes of action differed. This was Kahsai’s fifth related lawsuit in the District of Minnesota; the opinion states that earlier related lawsuits had been dismissed for failure to prosecute.

Motion and failure to respond

The Postmaster General moved to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and failure to state a claim. Kahsai was required to respond by December 5, 2022, under the local rules. After he did not respond, the court issued a briefing order setting a new deadline of January 31, 2023. Kahsai still did not respond.

Court’s analysis

The court relied on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b), which permits dismissal when a plaintiff fails to prosecute a case or comply with a court order. The court concluded that Kahsai had clearly abandoned this action by missing both deadlines. It also stated that dismissing this case would allow the related 2020 action to proceed as the single case involving the underlying facts and would avoid inconsistent rulings or an unintended preclusive effect on that action.

The court dismissed the case for failure to prosecute rather than deciding the Postmaster General’s arguments about jurisdiction or whether the complaint stated legally sufficient claims. The court granted the Postmaster General’s Motion to Dismiss. It dismissed Kahsai’s action with prejudice. The opinion’s footnote explains that this prevented Kahsai from filing another lawsuit concerning the same operative facts, but did not affect his 2020 action or prevent him from using the proper procedure in that action to seek new allegations or claims.