John Cline v. Dora Schriro

MEMORANDUM

John Robert Cline, an Arizona state prisoner, appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review for abuse of discretion a district court’s dismissal for failure to prosecute, Moneymaker v. CoBen (In re Eisen), 31 F.3d 1447, 1451 (9th Cir.1994), and we reverse and remand.

Although the district court did not abuse its discretion in requiring Cline to sign an unaltered medical release, the district court abused its discretion when it dismissed the case for failure to prosecute based on Cline’s delay in returning the unaltered medical release to defendants. See id. at 1451 (listing factors to consider in determining whether dismissal for failure to prosecute was an abuse of discretion). Cline executed and mailed to defendants the unaltered release less than forty days after the court’s deadline and without further order of the court and thus did not unreasonably delay the proceedings. See id. (“In dismissing a case for lack of prosecution, the court must find unreasonable delay.”). Further, there is no indication in…