Graham v. Social Security Administration

Filing 14

ORDERED that plaintiff, within 14 days of the date this Order is served, show cause why this case should not be dismissed on abandonment grounds. Signed by Magistrate Judge G. R. Smith on 12/18/2015. (loh)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
STATESBORO DIVISION
DIANE ONOFRIO GRAHAM,
Plaintiff,
V.

Case No. CV614-102
CAROLYN W. COLVIN,
Acting Commissioner of the Social
Security Administration,
Defendant.

[II II] DI

Having been denied social security disability benefits at the
administrative level, plaintiff Diane Graham, at the time proceeding pro
se (she since has retained counsel, see doe. 9), filed her first Complaint
for judicial review on September 15, 2014. Doc. 1. Because the Court
found her indigent, it directed the U.S. Marshal to serve the defendant.
Doc. 6. The Marshal perfected service on October 28, 2014, doe. 8, and
Graham amended her Complaint about two months later. Doc. 10 (filed
January 6, 2015).
With it she included a letter to the Clerk asking him to return three
attached summonses so that counsel could serve them rather than utilize

Marshal service. Doc. 10-1. Almost a year later, nothing has happened.
The amended Complaint has never been served on the defendant,' no
briefs have been filed, and this case has stagnated.
Consequently, within 14 days of the date this Order is served,
Graham shall show cause why this case should not be dismissed on
abandonment grounds. Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(b); S.D. Ga. L.R. 41(b). 2
SO ORDERED, this 18th day of December, 2015.

UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA

1

Regardless of whether the Clerk should have returned the summonses to Graham's
counsel, he apparently never followed up despite almost an entire year rolling by
since the amended complaint's filing. Fault for that delay rests with counsel, not the
Clerk.
2

"The district court possesses the inherent power to police its docket" and to prune
from its docket those cases that amount to no more than mere deadwood. Collins v.
Lake Helen, L.P., 249 F. App'x 116, 120 (11th Cir. 2007) (citing Link v. Wabash R,R,
Co., 370 U.S. 626, 629-30 (1962)); Mingo v. Sugar Cane Growers Co-op, 864 F.2d 101,
102 (11th Cir.1989).
2