In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit No. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, East St. Louis Division. Sellers, an inmate in a Texas state prison, brought this suit seven years ago against officials of the federal prison at Marion, Illinois, where he was then imprisoned, claiming they had violated his constitutional rights. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants and dismissed the suit. Sellers's appeal claims that he was not given a rea- sonable opportunity to submit affidavits in response to those the defendants had filed in support of their motion for summary judgment.
Sellers makes two arguments, one of which has merit.
The unmeritorious argument is that he did not have to file his counteraffidavits until the district court ruled on his motion to strike the defendants' affidavits on the ground that they did not comply with Fed. No rule entitles a litigant to proceed in that way. Sellers could have asked the district court for an extension of time within which to file his counteraffidavits, but he could not arrogate the decision on timing to himself on the basis of his personal views of optimal procedure. Which is not to say that his motion to strike had no merit. But we do not reverse for failure to adhere to Lewis v. Faulkner unless there is reason to believe that the plaintiff was prejudiced by the failure, that is, that he could have established that there was a genuine issue of material fact, precluding the grant of summary judgment, if he had had a reasonable oppor- tunity to submit affidavits.