Opinion
No. 13 C 7403
11-21-2013
MAURICE J. SALEM, Plaintiff, v. SAID GHUSEIN, et al., Defendants.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
During the course of the November 18 status hearing in this action--a belated initial status hearing because of the failure of plaintiff Maurice Salem to have complied with the requirements of this District Court's LR 5.2(f) and the counterpart directive set out at the beginning of this Court's website--this Court had its first opportunity to hear both from pro se plaintiff Salem and the counsel representing the three defendants in the case. In the course of learning the parties' respective positions, this Court neglected to inquire on one aspect of the litigation, and this memorandum order is issued to address that oversight (a current inquiry because at the conclusion the November 18 session this Court established a next status hearing more than a month out--on December 24).
One principal reason for setting the late December status hearing date is to enable defense counsel to conduct discovery into Salem's claim of New York citizenship, a claim that is essential to his reliance on diversity of citizenship as the predicate for federal jurisdiction.
Salem identifies himself as "a New York attorney," but Amended Complaint ¶8 alleges that he "performed numerous and extensive litigation in the federal and state courts, as will [sic] as with the IRS and administrative courts over an eight year period for defendants." Later he alleges involvement in a major federal action (Complaint ¶12) and a federal trademark action (Complaint ¶13) as well as a July 11 state court action in which he identifies himself in Complaint ¶15 "as co-counsel on a pro hac vice basis."
That allegation and the allegations referred to in the next sentence of the text relate to services performed in Illinois on Illinois matters.
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It is likely to be useful in the present litigation for Salem to advise whether he has been generally admitted to practice in the Illinois state court system and in the federal courts (both this District Court and our Court of Appeals), or whether his pattern of activity involved pro hac vice admission on a repeated basis--or perhaps whether he follows some other practice. Accordingly Salem is ordered to file a statement on or before December 5, 2013 itemizing the information called for in this memorandum order. That information will be retained as part of the case file.
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Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge