Roland Hacopian v. United States Department of Labor, United States Department of Justice

NELSON, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Hacopian seeks review of the dismissal of his Freedom of Information Act suit by the district court. The suit was dismissed on the ground that Hacopian had not paid the costs assessed against him in previous similar actions against the same defendants. We hold that a court has the inherent power to dismiss a case for the nonpayment of costs in a prior involuntarily dismissed action that made the same claim. In this instance, we must remand the case to the district court for a determination of whether the earlier suits involved the same claim made here.

FACTS AND…