Eva Rose Boling v. United States

An appeal has been brought by a plaintiff in an action for damages for alleged personal injury from the order of the District Court terminating the proceeding for lack of prosecution. The action was against the government under the provisions of the Tort Claims Act, 28 U. S.C.A. § 2671 et seq.

The power of the trial court to dismiss a cause where the matter has become stale by virtue of inaction by plaintiff is inherent and has been crystallized by rule. Rule 41(b), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. One of the causes of congestion of the trial dockets is the failure of courts to exercise the authority vested in them thus to dispose of cases which are shaky or unfounded but which are held on the calendar for nuisance value. Since trial judges are hesitant to dismiss such causes of their own motion, for fear of injustice to some litigant, the device of placing cases in which no action has been taken for a considerable time on a docket for dismissal, absent a showing of adequate explanation for the delay, has been used. But even this palliative for the admitted evil has been of little avail, because of the innate hesitancy mentioned above. Because of this fact, an order…