Opinion ID: 767398
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Applicability of Donald's Relaxation of the Requirements for Relation Back

Text: 24 King contends that even if he has not satisfied the standard requirements under Rule 15(c)(3) for an amended complaint to relate back, those requirements ought to be relaxed in this case pursuant to our decision in Donald v. Cook County Sheriff's Dep't, 95 F.3d 548 (7th Cir. 1996). 25 In Donald, a pro se plaintiff brought a sec. 1983 suit against the Cook County Sheriff's Department rather than naming individual jail officers as defendants. 5 See id. at 551. Later, after the Sheriff's Department filed a motion to dismiss, Donald realized his mistake and tried to amend his complaint to name individual officers as defendants. See id. at 552, 557-58. But the statute of limitations had already expired. See id. at 551-52. The district court refus[ed] to allow Donald to amend his complaint to add the individual defendants, see id. at 553-54, and dismissed Donald's original complaint because under Monell v. Dep't of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), it did not state a claim against the Sheriff's Department. See Donald, 95 F.3d at 551. 26 We reversed the district court's dismissal of Donald's sec. 1983 action because the trial judge failed to assist Donald, who was proceeding pro se, in amending his complaint to name the proper defendants. Id. at 554-55. We held that the trial judge should have permitted Donald to file an amended complaint--but only because Donald satisfied the mistake requirement for relation back under Rule 15(c). See Donald, 95 F.3d at 560; Baskin, 138 F.3d at 704 n.1. 27 King's reliance on Donald is misplaced. In contrast to Donald, where Donald's proposed amendment was not discernibly 6 futile, King's proposed amendment would be certainly futile. King, as discussed above, failed to satisfy Rule 15(c)'s mistake requirement for relation back. We hold that it would have been pointless for the district court in this case to permit King to file an amended complaint where such an amendment would be time-barred.