Donner v. Hetherington

SCHWARTZ, Judge.

In the middle of a jury trial,1 the court dismissed the plaintiff’s case with prejudice on the apparent ground that she had been guilty of disruptive behavior during the proceedings. We appreciate the real problems encountered below by the trial judge in his attempts to deal with a difficult litigant who also sought to represent herself pro se. There is simply nothing in the record, however, which demonstrates that the plaintiff disobeyed — willfully or otherwise — an order of court or committed any other act which would justify a dismissal of the action, either with or…