Peggy Pendell v. City of Peoria, Illinois, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 15062

Pendell sued city officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming an unlawful inspection, a warrant based on that inspection, and subsequent removal/raze of her yard.
Her deposition was set for December 2013; she did not appear and claimed she had a stroke but produced no medical proof.
The district court denied the defendants’ Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(d) motion initially but ordered Pendell to appear at a new deposition and warned that failure could lead to dismissal.
A deposition was rescheduled by agreement to April 17; she left after 1.5 hours claiming cognitive exhaustion and the deposition was continued to May 9, 2014.
Pendell failed to appear on May 9 despite her attorney’s email confirmation and her own follow-up note the day before; she later told the court she did not know about the date but produced no corroboration.
The district court found willful noncompliance, dismissed the case with prejudice for failure to prosecute; the Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding adequate warning and no abuse of discretion.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether dismissal for failing to attend deposition was an abuse of discretion	Dismissal was too harsh; failures were caused by stroke and confusion	Nonappearance was willful, caused delay and expense, court warned of dismissal	Affirmed — no abuse of discretion; dismissal proper after willful noncompliance and warning
Whether district court gave adequate warning before dismissal	Court did not sufficiently warn that dismissal would follow	Court previously warned Pendell her case would be dismissed if she failed to appear	Held adequate — court warned her before the final missed deposition
Whether ineffective assistance of recruited counsel warrants reversal	Counsel was ineffective, prejudicing Pendell	Ineffective assistance is not a basis for reversal in civil cases	Rejected — ineffective assistance claim not grounds for reversal in civil case
Whether judge was biased due to Pendell’s mental illness	Judge was biased against Pendell for alleged mental illness	No evidence judge knew of or acted on any mental illness; no bias shown	Rejected — no evidence of judicial bias

James v. McDonald’s Corp., 417 F.3d 672 (7th Cir. 2005) (standard of review for dismissal sanctions)
Kasalo v. Harris & Harris, Ltd., 656 F.3d 557 (7th Cir. 2011) (factors relevant to dismissal for discovery violations)
Fischer v. Cingular Wireless, LLC, 446 F.3d 663 (7th Cir. 2006) (approving dismissal when warned and willful noncompliance persists)
Halas v. Consumer Servs., Inc., 16 F.3d 161 (7th Cir. 1994) (upholding dismissal after long pattern of unproductive litigation and failure to attend deposition)
Greviskes v. Univs. Research Ass’n, Inc., 417 F.3d 752 (7th Cir. 2005) (affirming dismissal where plaintiff lied about discovery)
Dotson v. Bravo, 321 F.3d 663 (7th Cir. 2003) (upholding dismissal for false statements to the court about discovery)
Link v. Wabash R.R. Co., 370 U.S. 626 (1962) (recognizing a court’s inherent power to dismiss for failure to prosecute)