Opinion
No. 05 C 4453.
May 14, 2008
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Counsel for relator Rhonda Salmeron ("Salmeron") has consistently been late in attending to his responsibilities in this action. This Court has been more than patient with those repeated delinquencies, regularly being forced to have its minute clerk follow up to inquire as to why a promised deadline date has not been met. Most recently Salmeron's counsel promised that an already-substantially-overdue response to the motions to dismiss filed by several of the defendants would be delivered to this Court's chambers by last Friday (May 9), but as usual there has been no delivery and no explanation forthcoming.
Indeed, the movement of this action toward potential resolution has been proceeding in the wrong direction entirely. Most recently counsel has filed a Third Amended Complaint, and the newly targeted defendant has in turn filed its own motion to dismiss.
In mathematics we speak of a convergent series. What Salmeron's counsel has generated instead is a divergent series, so that the ongoing expansion of the litigation has brought it farther from — rather than closer to — the point of potential resolution.
This Court rarely dismisses any action for want of prosecution — and in the rare instances in which it has done so in the past, it has always fired a shot across plaintiff's bow before doing so. Here plaintiff's counsel does not appear entitled to such solicitude. This action is dismissed for want of prosecution, although upon a properly persuasive and well supported submission this Court might perhaps be prepared to entertain a promptly filed motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e).