Al-Bustani v. Alger ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 10 AL-HARETH AL-BUSTANI, CASE NO. C22-5238JLR 11 Plaintiff, ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE v. 12 SEAN B. ALGER, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4 requires a plaintiff to serve each defendant with 16 a summons and a copy of the plaintiff’s complaint and sets forth the specific 17 requirements for doing so. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m), which provides the 18 timeframe in which service must be effectuated, states in relevant part: 19 If a defendant is not served within 90 days after the complaint is filed, the court—on motion or on its own after notice to the plaintiff—must dismiss 20 the action without prejudice against that defendant or order that service be made within a specified time. But if the plaintiff shows good cause for the 21 failure, the court must extend the time for service for an appropriate period. 22 1 Id.; see also Boden v. City of Topeka, Kan., 441 F.3d 1129, 1148 (10th Cir. 2006) 2 (requiring newly added defendants to be served within 90 days after an amended 3 complaint is filed). 4 On September 19, 2022, the court dismissed Mr. Al-Bustani’s claims against 5 Defendants Steven Outtrim, Evan Watson, and Harrison Lindley without prejudice 6 because Mr. Al-Bustani had failed to effectuate service of process on these Defendants 7 within 90 days of filing his complaint and after a 45-day extension permitted by the court. 8 (See 9/19/22 Order (Dkt. # 41).) Mr. Al-Bustani filed an amended complaint on 9 September 22, 2022, again asserting claims against Mr. Outtrim, Mr. Watson, and Mr. 10 Lindley. (See Am. Compl. (Dkt. # 44) ¶¶ 6, 10, 11.) Mr. Al-Bustani’s amended 11 complaint also asserts, for the first time, claims against James Maiden (id. ¶ 9), and 12 Ashlea Stinnett, a.k.a. Kay Stone (id. ¶ 7).1 The deadline for Mr. Al-Bustani to serve the 13 amended complaint on Mr. Outtrim, Ms. Stinnett, Mr. Maiden, Mr. Watson, and Mr. 14 Lindley was December 21, 2022, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(m), but Mr. Al-Bustani has not 15 provided proof of service for any of these Defendants (see Dkt). 16 Accordingly, the court ORDERS Plaintiff to SHOW CAUSE by no later than 17 January 9, 2023, why Defendants Steven Outtrim, Ashlea Stinnett, James Maiden, Evan 18 Watson, and Harrison Lindley should not be dismissed from this action for failure to 19 20 1 Mr. Al-Bustani had previously misidentified Ms. Stinnett in his original complaint and 21 indicated he would serve her after identifying her correctly in his amended complaint. (See OSC Resp. (Dkt. # 27) at 2-3; see also 9/19/22 Order at 2 n.1.) 22 1 comply with Rule 4(m). If Mr. Al-Bustani does not demonstrate good cause for the 2 failure, the court will dismiss the above-named Defendants without prejudice. 2 3 Dated this 28th day of December, 2022. 4 A 5 6 JAMES L. ROBART United States District Judge 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 2 This serves as Mr. Al-Bustani’s third warning from the court that defendants who are not timely served must be dismissed from this action. (See 9/19/22 Order at 2; 7/13/22 OSC 22 (Dkt. # 17) at 2.)