[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday refused to reinstate [order list, PDF] the appeal of Bobby Chen in his legal dispute with the city of Baltimore. Chen has been fighting city officials for years on a claim that the city illegally demolished his house. Without the help of an attorney, Chen managed to get his case to the US Supreme Court last year. However, after disappearing for two months and missing a filing deadline, the court dismissed his case. Chen re-emerged with a high-profile attorney that said his client had been traveling and suffered an injury, and he was unaware that his case had been granted. The court has declined to reinstate the case.

Without the help of an attorney and filing his own paperwork, Chen beat odds and persuaded [petition, PDF] the court to hear his case last year. On November 7 the court announced it would hear the case [JURIST report], but Chen was nowhere to be found. He did not list a phone number in his application and the e-mail address had been disabled.