Balensiefen v. Princeton National Bancorp d/b/a Citizens National Bank

Filing 38

ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS Entered by Chief Judge James E. Shadid on 7/31/12. The Court agrees with the findings and reasoning of the Magistrate Report and Recommendation 37 and grants in part 35 Motion for Sanctions filed by Princeton National Bancorp, Inc.. The Court therefore adopts the Report and Recommendation and the case is dismissed with prejudice.(DK, ilcd)

E-FILED

Tuesday, 31 July, 2012 02:59:53 PM
Clerk, U.S. District Court, ILCD
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
STEPHANIE BALENSIEFEN,
Plaintiff,
v.
PRINCETON NATIONAL BANCORP, INC.
Defendant.

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

Case No.: 10-CV-1263

ORDER
On July 10, 2012, a Report and Recommendation [#37] was filed in the above-captioned
case by United States Magistrate Judge Byron G. Cudmore recommending dismissal of the case
as a sanction for willful failure to comply with the Court’s orders.
Discussion
The facts were given in detail in the R&R, but by way of summary, the original
Complaint [#1] was filed on August 19, 2010, and an Amended Complaint [#2] and Second
Amended Complaint [#9] were filed October 4, 2010 and December 4, 2010, respectively.
Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss [#10] which was denied, and after unsuccessfully
attempting to schedule this matter for mediation, a Scheduling Order [#25] was entered
December 2, 2011. Plaintiff’s counsel filed a Motion to Withdraw from the case on March 6,
2012 due to irreconcilable differences and that motion was allowed. On May 7, 2012, Defendant
filed a Motion to Compel alleging Plaintiff’s failure to respond to interrogatories requests for
production. Defendant noted several correspondences with Plaintiff’s counsel when he was still
retained, and contacts with her after counsel’s Motion to Withdraw was granted. On June 6,
2012, Defendant filed a status report indicating that Plaintiff had failed to comply with discovery
and had no success in attempting to contact Plaintiff. On June 7, 2012, Magistrate Cudmore

directed Plaintiff to file a written response to the status report by June 18, 2012. Plaintiff did not
reply and Magistrate Cudmore, sua sponte, granted an extension to July 5, 2012, which the
Plaintiff failed to comply with. Magistrate Cudmore then recommended dismissal for failure to
comply with discovery pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(b)(2).
The Court agrees with the findings and reasoning of Magistrates Report and
Recommendation. The Court therefore adopts the Report and Recommendation and the case is
DISMISSED with prejudice.

ENTERED this 31st day of July, 2012.

/s/ James E. Shadid
James E. Shadid
Chief United States District Judge