United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois

vin Magistrate Judge Milton I, Shadur “than signed Judge

CASE NUMBER 01 C9393 DATE 12/28/2001
CASE Eric R, Ralford vs. Fantastic Sams
TITLE

[In the following box (a) indicate the party filing the motion, e.g., plaintiff, defendant, 3rd party plaintiff, and (b) state briefly the nature

of the motion being presented.]

MOTION:

DOCKET ENTRY:

(a) a Filed motion of [ use listing in “Motion” box above.]

(2) a Brief in support of motion due.

@) Oo Answer brief to motion due. . Reply to answer brief due.

(4) im) Ruling/Hearing on set for at

(5) i) Status hearing[held/continued to] [set for/re-set for]on__—_—setfor__—at__
(6) Oo Pretrial conference[held/continued to] [set for/re-set for]on__—ssetfor_— at,
(7) o Trialfset for/re-set for]on__—__at

(8) oO [Bench/Jury trial] [Hearing] held/continued to__at

(9) a This case is dismissed [with/without] prejudice and without costs[by/agreement/pursuant to]

COFRCP4¢n) (General Rule21 CIFRCP41(a)(1) C1 FRCP41(a)(2).

(io) of [Other docket entry] Enter Memorandum Opinion and Order. Unless Ralford’s appointed counsel
files in this Court’s chambers on or before January 14, 2002 an explanation as to why dismissal is not in
order, this Court will be constrained to dismiss this action because of Ralford’s failure to have conformed
to the statutory precondition of a timely filing of his Charge.

(il) ff [For further detail see order attached to the original minute order.]

No notices required, advised in open court. Document
No notices required. Number
number of notices
Y_ | Notices mailed by judge’s staff.
an JAN 0 2 2002
Notified counsel by telephone. @ date sacheted

Docketing to mail notices.
Mait AO 450 form.

Copy to judge/magistrate judge.

date ma i
courtroom fate mailed notice

SN deputy’s on
initials

Date/time received in
central Clerk’s Office mailing deputy initials



IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

EASTERN DIVISION HOCKETED

ERIC R. RALFORD, ) JAN 9 2 2002
Plaintiff, }
v. } No. 01 C 9393
FANTASTIC SAMS,
Defendant. }

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

After Eric Ralford (“Ralford”) had submitted a self-prepared
Complaint of Employment Discrimination against his former
employer Fantastic Sams, using the form provided by this District
Court's Clerk's Office for use by pro se litigants, this Court
both (1) appointed an attorney to represent Ralford and (2) asked
Ralford or his counsel to provide photocopies of Ralford's Charge
of Discrimination (“Charge”) and EEOC's right-to-sue letter
(neither of which had been attached to the Complaint, despite its
directives to do so). Those documents have now been tendered,
and they appear to require the threshold dismissal of this
action.

According to the Charge, Ralford's termination date of
May 14, 2000 quite understandably represented the last date on
which he was the victim of asserted sex and color discrimination
by Fantastic Sams. But the Charge reflects that Ralford did not
sign it until April 18, 2001--and though EEOC's date stamp is

unclear from the photocopy delivered to this Court, the Charge

\


sn”

seems to have been filed the next day.

Those dates have confirmed as a factual matter a defect that
this Court had noted in the Complaint, but that it thought might
simply have been attributable to a mistake on the part of
nonlawyer Ralford in filling in the blanks in the form Complaint
qfé and 7(a): the Charge's having been filed outside of the 300-
day limitation period established by 42 U.S.C. §2000e-5(e) (1).
Accordingly, unless Ralford's appointed counsel files in this
Court's chambers on or before January 14, 2002 an explanation as
to why dismissal is not in order, this Court will be constrained
to dismiss this action because of Ralford's failure to have

conformed to the statutory precondition of a timely filing of his

Milton I, Shadur
Senior United States District Judge

Charge.

Date: December 28, 2001