Myers v. BBH PBMC, LLC, etc., et al., [Ms. SC-2024-0833, Aug. 29, 2025] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2025). The Court (McCool, J.; Stewart, C.J., and Bryan and Mendheim, JJ., concur; Shaw, J., concurs in the result) reverses the Jefferson Circuit Court’s dismissal of Bonnie Jean Myers’s premises liability action for failure to prosecute. The circuit court dismissed the action after Myers and her counsel failed to appear at a status conference.
Even though Myers’s post-judgment motion was not supported by any evidence, the Court holds “[t]he circuit court exceeded the bounds of its discretion by dismissing Myers’s complaint pursuant to Rule 41(b) because the only evidence to support dismissal is the fact that Myers and her attorney inadvertently failed to appear in court for the first status conference.” Ms. **16-17. The Court “accept[s] the allegations in Myers’s postjudgment motion at face value, given that there is nothing in the record to indicate that Myers and her attorney willfully or contumaciously refused to attend the August 9, 2024, status conference.” Ms. *16, citing Ash v. Washington, 349 So. 3d 1284 (Ala. Civ. App. 2021)(as officers of the court declarations by attorney “are virtually made under oath.”).