Courts do sometimes err on the lenient side when dealing with goofballs, but there's a separate technical reason for why this dismissal is without prejudice. A dismissal with prejudice is an adjudication on the merits, which means that the plaintiff is barred from bringing the same claims, not only in the current court, but in any other court.northland10 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 9:02 pm My impression on the without prejudice was that, while realizing that it was very likely impossible to remedy the flaws, the judge felt the courts should error on the lenient side. Assuming they screw up service again, it won't really cause any time losses to boot it again. I somehow recall a great deal of the dismissals of the past were without prejudice. Most get the point that they have to actually fix the errors, except for folks like Klayman.
Since the court has correctly ruled that it does not have subject matter jurisdiction, it doesn't have power to decide the merits. Hernandez v. Conriv Realty Assocs., 182 F.3d 121, 123 (2d Cir. 1999) (“[W]here a court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, it also lacks the power to dismiss with prejudice.”).
This leaves the plaintiff free to file the same claims in a court that does have jurisdiction, if such a court exists.
What is and isn't "merits," and the difference between "merits" and "jurisdiction" can lead to tricky questions, in part because courts use the two terms in a number of different senses. My rule of thumb is that merits are on the right side of the timeline, preliminary matters are on the left, and the needle dividing the two concepts itself tends to move from left to right as a litigation progresses.
In this matter, however, since no court with jurisdiction exists, we don't need to worry about subtle distinctions.
And we don't have to worry about the court being inappropriately lenient, as bob just noted.
bob wrote: ↑Fri Nov 05, 2021 3:24 pmYeah. Self-sanctions!Reality Check wrote: ↑Fri Nov 05, 2021 3:01 pmDismissed w/o prejudice again so I assume they could refile the mess if they wished to cough up the filing fee?
Or they could appeal. Self-sanctions!