Searles v. United States
- Ronnie Abrams
- 1:21-cv-06570
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Searles v. United States, Judge Abrams ordered Jared Searles to say whether he will continue the case, warning of possible dismissal for failure to prosecute.
Jared Searles must notify the court by May 23, 2023, whether he intends to pursue the action; the court may dismiss the case for failure to prosecute if he does not respond.
What happened
In Searles v. United States, Jared Searles filed an amended complaint after the court had dismissed an earlier complaint and the appeals process had ended. The United States then moved to dismiss the amended complaint.
Searles did not oppose that motion, even after the court gave him a deadline to respond. The court treated the motion as ready for decision and submitted it for review.
Judge Ronnie Abrams ordered Searles to file a letter by May 23, 2023, stating whether he intends to pursue the case. The court said it may dismiss the action for failure to prosecute if he does not communicate by that date.
The detailed version
- Searles v. United States · No. 1:21-cv-06570
- Ronnie Abrams
- May 16, 2023
Background
On July 20, 2022, the court granted the United States' motion to dismiss and allowed Jared Searles to amend his complaint by August 20, 2022. Searles appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on August 25, 2022, and sought additional time to amend. The court initially denied that request because it concluded that the pending appeal deprived it of authority over the matter. After Searles made another request, the court issued an indicative ruling stating that it would grant an extension to file an amended complaint if the Second Circuit remanded the case. The court later reopened the case.
Searles filed an amended complaint on November 26, 2022. The United States timely moved to dismiss the amended complaint on December 9, 2022. Searles did not file an opposition. The court ordered him to respond by January 27, 2023, if he intended to do so, but he still did not respond. The court therefore deemed the motion fully briefed and took it under submission. This order does not state a ruling on the United States' pending motion to dismiss.
Order
Judge Ronnie Abrams ordered Searles to file a letter on the docket by May 23, 2023, stating whether he intends to pursue the action. The court stated that, if it did not receive a communication from him by that date, it may dismiss the action for failure to prosecute under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b).
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.