George E. Simmons v. John S. Ghent

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

We issued a rule to show cause why the appeal should not be dismissed as premature. The district court had entered a minute order dismissing this prisoner’s civil rights case as frivolous, before he had served his complaint on any of the defendants. No separate judgment order was entered as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 58, but, the court’s intention to terminate the litigation being clear, the minute order was an appealable judgment under Bankers Trust Co. v. Mallis, 435 U.S. 381, 98 S.Ct. 1117, 55 L.Ed.2d 357 (1978) (per curiam); and the appellant duly filed his notice of…