U.S. Supreme Court dismisses case after litigant goes AWOL

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a case it had previously agreed to hear after the man at the center of the lawsuit simply could not be found. In what was an usual resolution to a case, the court said in a brief order that Bobby Chen, a non-lawyer who filed his own court papers in a property dispute with the city of Baltimore, could not be contacted after failing to meet court deadlines. "Additional efforts to contact the petitioner have been unsuccessful," the order stated. Chen, who was thought to live in New York, had said his due process rights were violated by Baltimore's government. He said the city razed a house he owned in 2008 without giving him any notice or allowing him to contest the decision. The legal dispute the Supreme Court had agreed to hear was a technical question relating to Chen's efforts to sue the city for its actions. The court's dismissal of the case means an appeals court ruling in favor of the city stays intact. The case is Chen v. Baltimore City, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 13-10400. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)