Hewes v. Alabama Secretary of State
- Lewis Liman
- 1:19-cv-09158
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Hewes v. Alabama Secretary of State, Judge Liman dismissed the remaining claims without prejudice after Hewes failed to respond to a show-cause order.
Henry F. Hewes’s remaining claims were dismissed without prejudice, and the case was closed.
What happened
In Hewes v. Alabama Secretary of State, the court considered whether to dismiss the remaining claims because the plaintiff had not continued pursuing the case.
The court had ordered Henry F. Hewes to explain by September 21, 2020, why the claims should not be dismissed. Hewes did not file a response, and the mailed order was returned to the court.
Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed the claims that had not already been dismissed without prejudice, directed the Clerk of Court to close the case, and ordered that a copy of the order be mailed to Hewes.
The detailed version
- Hewes v. Alabama Secretary of State · No. 1:19-cv-09158
- Lewis Liman
- Mar. 25, 2021
Background
The court addressed the plaintiff’s failure to continue prosecuting the action. The court had previously ordered Henry F. Hewes to show cause—meaning to explain—by September 21, 2020, why all claims in the action should not be dismissed. Hewes did not file the required response. The order mailed to the plaintiff’s listed address was returned to the court.
Legal standard
Under Rule 41(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a district court may dismiss an action on its own for failure to prosecute after considering relevant factors, including whether the plaintiff received notice. The court cited decisions explaining that a plaintiff’s failure to notify the court of an address change may support dismissal and that failing to respond to an order to show cause is evidence that the plaintiff is not pursuing the case.
Ruling
The court dismissed without prejudice the claims that had not already been dismissed. It directed the Clerk of Court to close the case and mail a copy of the order to the plaintiff’s address on file. The opinion does not decide the underlying merits of those claims.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.