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PLAINTIFF
CIVIL ACTION NO.: 3:13cv300-MPM-SAA
DEFENDANTS
ORDER OF DISMISSAL
Plaintiff filed his Complaint on December 13, 2013. Docket # 1. Plaintiff took no other
action in the case until the court entered an Order to Show Cause on August 15, 2014, eight
months after the filing of the Complaint and four months after the time to serve defendants had
run on April 12, 2014. Docket # 6. The Order to Show Cause required plaintiff to demonstrate
why his case should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute. Plaintiff responded on August 28,
2014, and was granted thirty (30) days from September 8, 2014 to obtain service of process on
defendants. Docket # 8. Although plaintiff amended his Complaint on September 12, 2014, he
did not request that a summons be issued for defendants and therefore could not accomplish
service of process on defendants. Docket #10. Plaintiffs Amended Complaint does not add any
new defendants, but instead only amends a few allegations.1
Rule 4(m) of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure dictates that:
When a complaint is amended to add new parties, the plaintiff is given 120 days from
the date of the amendment to serve the new defendants, but amendment does not extend the time
for serving parties who were named earlier. Lindley v. City of Birmingham, 452 Fed.Appx. 878,
880 (11th Cir. 2011); Brait Builders Corp. v. Mass. Div. Of Capital Asset Mgmt., 644 F.3d 5, 9
(1st Cir. 2011); Todd v. City of LaFayette, 2013 WL 6050855, *2 (M.D. Ala. Sept. 23, 2013).