Barnes v. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC

Background

This was a personal-injury action. Novelette Barnes filed the case in New York Supreme Court, Bronx County, on March 28, 2018. The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC removed it to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on January 15, 2019, relying on the court's diversity jurisdiction. On March 20, 2019, the parties consented to Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses's authority over the case.

The court's case-management order required fact discovery to be completed by July 29, 2019, all discovery by September 12, 2019, and either a summary-judgment motion or a joint proposed pretrial order by October 14, 2019. The court extended the fact-discovery deadline to August 30, 2019, for previously authorized depositions, but did not extend the other deadlines.

After the October 14 deadline passed, the defendant's counsel filed a change-of-address notice and notice of appearance on October 17, 2019. No other case activity occurred. On March 16, 2020, the court ordered the parties to file a summary-judgment motion, submit a joint proposed pretrial order, or file an agreement voluntarily dismissing the case by April 15, 2020. The court expressly warned that noncompliance could result in dismissal for failure to prosecute. Neither party complied or took any further action.

Legal standard

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) permits dismissal when a plaintiff fails to pursue a case or comply with a court order. The court may issue that dismissal on its own, even when the defendant has not moved for dismissal. Before dismissing, the court considers the length of the failure, whether the party had notice that dismissal could result, likely prejudice from further delay, the court's need to manage its docket compared with the plaintiff's opportunity to be heard, and whether a less severe sanction would be appropriate.

Ruling

Judge Moses dismissed the action without prejudice for failure to prosecute under Rule 41(b) and directed the Clerk of Court to close the case. She emphasized that nearly eight months had passed since the deadline for filing a summary-judgment motion or joint proposed pretrial order, that the parties also ignored the later court order and warning, and that both sides were represented by counsel.

The court concluded that the delay warranted dismissal. Because Stop & Shop had also failed to comply with the court's orders, the court declined to dismiss the complaint with prejudice. It instead determined that dismissal without prejudice was a lesser sanction that adequately addressed the court's need to clear the case from its docket.