Evans v. New York City Health And Hospitals Corporation

Background

Pauline Evans, proceeding without a lawyer, sued New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Lincoln. She alleged that the defendants’ COVID-19 vaccination policy violated her right to refuse unwanted and medically unnecessary medical care, her Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Earlier proceedings

Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo recommended dismissing Evans’s claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), which permits dismissal when a complaint does not state a legally sufficient claim. The recommendation also proposed allowing Evans to amend a possible Fourteenth Amendment due process claim. The opinion states that Evans appeared to assert a property interest in her employment with Lincoln Hospital, but that her complaint did not include facts about the terms of that employment.

On August 29, 2023, the court adopted the recommendation and granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss Evans’s claims in full under Rule 12(b)(6). The dismissal was without prejudice to Evans’s right to timely replead the due process claim for the limited purpose of adding allegations about the nature of her employment. The court set September 15, 2023, as the deadline for an amended complaint and warned that failure to file one would result in the case being closed, with prejudice to filing an amended complaint.

Ruling

Evans did not file an amended complaint, request an extension, or otherwise take action after the August 29 order. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b), which permits dismissal for failure to prosecute, and the court’s inherent authority, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer dismissed the case, with prejudice to the filing of an amended complaint, because Evans failed to prosecute it. This order addressed Evans’s failure to move the case forward; it did not decide the underlying claims on their merits.