Court Opinion

ID: 9476212
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:50:16.160098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:11.353769
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I would permit Neva Salinas to pursue a judgment on the merits of her age discrimination claim. This is not the sort of egregious case that justifies the ultimate Rule 41(b) sanction of dismissal with prejudice. There has been no showing that Salinas herself is to blame for the period of inactivity that followed filing of her complaint. Nor is there any indication that the inactivity has prejudiced Sun Oil. Abandoned by her original attorney, Salinas proceeded in the only reasonable way that she, an individual untrained in the law, could: she began looking for a new attorney.
Salinas contacted eight attorneys herself, but each declined to take her case. She also contacted West Texas Legal Services (WTLS), but was ineligible for their services. Gilbert Rodriguez, a WTLS attorney, also attempted, without success at that time, to locate an attorney to represent Salinas. Salinas informed the district court by handwritten note that her failure to comply with the court’s order to immediately prosecute the case was due to her difficulty locating an attorney. Salinas has now located an attorney to pursue her age discrimination claim. Since the record contains no indication of egregious or disrespectful conduct by Salinas and since Sun Oil has suffered no prejudice by the inactivity in this case, I would allow Salinas her day in court.