By: Derek Hawkins//September 21, 2015//
Civil
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and POSNER and ROVNER, Circuit Judges
Protection of Prisoners – Dismissal with Prejudice
No.14-3441 Mario Reyes v. Thomas J. Dart
Circuit court dismissal of appellant-prisoner’s claim alleging prison guard ignored appellants pleas for help while appellant was being stabbed was a miscarriage of justice.
“The judge erred. Rule 41(b) authorizes dismissal of a suit if the “plaintiff fails to prosecute [it] or to comply with these rules or a court order.” There was no failure to comply with any rule or any court order. Nor in refusing to sign the re‐ lease was the plaintiff failing to prosecute his suit—he was prosecuting it in part by challenging the defendants’ demand for unlimited access to and unlimited use of his medical records (albeit only such records as counsel might find in the files of the enumerated medical institutions). The demand for so comprehensive a release was improper, and the plaintiff should not have been criticized—let alone thrown out of court under inapplicable Rule 41(b)—for challenging it.”
Vacated and Remanded