Idema v. Dreamworks, Inc.

Citation162 F.Supp.2d 1129
Decision Date10 September 2001
Docket NumberNo. CV0010316ABC (RNBX).,CV0010316ABC (RNBX).
CourtU.S. District Court — Central District of California
PartiesJ. Keith IDEMA; Gary Scurka; Kathy Scurka; and Jim Morris, Plaintiffs, v. DREAMWORKS, INC., et al., Defendants.

J. Keith Idema, Fayetteville, NC, Pro se.

David Olan, Los Angeles, CA, for Plaintiffs.

Terence J. Clark, Irene Y. Lee, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Los Angeles, CA, Stephen Contoplulos, Bradley Ellis, Frank J. Broccolo, Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, Los Angeles, CA, Louis Petrich, Howard Wien, Leopold, Petrich & Smith, Los Angeles, CA for Defendants.

ORDER RE: DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND TO DISMISS

COLLINS, District Judge.

In this civil action complaining of alleged misappropriation of Plaintiffs' ideas and expression for the creation and production of the 1997 motion picture "The Peacemaker," Plaintiffs allege claims of direct and contributory copyright infringement, and eleven associated claims under different state laws. Defendants have filed two motions: the first seeks summary judgment on Plaintiffs' first two (copyright) claims; the second seeks dismissal of Plaintiffs' state law claims. Both motions came on for a hearing before this Court on September 10, 2001. The Court GRANTS the summary judgment motion, and GRANTS IN PART AND DENIES IN PART the motion to dismiss. The SAC is DISMISSED: the First through Fifth, Seventh through Tenth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, and part of the Eleventh Claims are DISMISSED, with prejudice. The Sixth and remaining Eleventh Claims are DISMISSED, without prejudice.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiffs Pro Se J. KEITH IDEMA ("Idema"), GARY SCURKA, KATHY SCURKA ("the Scurkas"), and JIM MORRIS ("Morris") (collectively, the "Plaintiffs") commenced this civil action with an initial Complaint filed September 25, 2000.1 The original Complaint alleged nine causes of action based on the facts alleged therein,2 and named as Defendants DREAMWORKS, INC. dba DREAMWORKS SKG, DREAMWORKS FILMS LLC, DREAMWORKS DISTRIBUTION LLC, DREAMWORKS LLC, (the "Dreamworks entities"), STEVEN A. SPIELBERG ("Spielberg"), BANTAM DOUBLEDAY DELL PUBLISHING GROUP ("Random House"),3 ANDREW COCKBURN, LESLIE COCKBURN ("the Cockburns"), JESSICA STERN ("Stern"), MICHAEL SCHIFFER ("Schiffer"), and PHILLIP PETERSEN ("Petersen"). The original Complaint was 83 pages and 244 paragraphs. To the extent that its allegations can be summarized, it claimed that "The Peacemaker" was based at least in part on the life story, and/or on several versions of a partly fictionalized story of the life of the lead Plaintiff, Idema, a former "Green Beret."

On October 30, 2000, several Defendants filed a motion to dismiss the Complaint and/or to require a more definite statement. However, on November 16, 2000, the Court instead granted what it construed to be an ex parte request by Plaintiffs for leave to file a First Amended Complaint ("FAC"), and therefore took the motion to dismiss/require a more definite statement off calendar. Plaintiffs were cautioned that they should file the FAC only after having reviewed and considered the objections raised by Defendants' motion. This caution was repeated in a subsequent extension of time within which to file the FAC granted to Plaintiffs (all of whom were at this time still pro se) on December 6, 2000. Nonetheless, the FAC filed by Plaintiffs on December 19, 2000 expanded the asserted claims.4 It contained 12 causes of action: the nine asserted in the original Complaint plus three new claims.5 The FAC was 96 pages and 295 paragraphs in length (plus one attachment). The FAC told the same basic story as the original Complaint, and aside from the addition of new allegations and new claims for relief did not appear to deviate significantly from Plaintiffs' original effort. It named all of the same Defendants as did Plaintiffs' initial Complaint.

On January 10, 2001,6 several Defendants filed another motion to dismiss and/or to require a more definite statement (and/or to strike certain material from the FAC). This motion was joined by all named Defendants except Defendant Petersen. The motion sought dismissal of the First through Fifth and Seventh through Twelfth Claims for Relief, i.e., all claims in the FAC except for the Sixth Claim for Breach of Contract, which was then asserted only against Defendant Petersen. On January 30, 2001, pursuant to a Stipulation and Order submitted by the parties and signed by the Court, the hearing on Defendants' motion was continued from its noticed date of February 12, 2001 to a new date of March 12, 2001. Plaintiffs filed opposing papers on February 26, 2001 (timely under Central District Local Rule 7.6 though not timely under a briefing schedule laid out by the Stipulation and Order).7 A Reply was filed/joined by all Defendants except Petersen on March 5, 2001.

In the interim, on February 20, 2001, all of the named Defendants except Defendant Petersen also filed (or joined) a motion for summary judgment. This motion was specifically addressed only to the claims ostensibly brought under the federal Copyright Act (the First, Second, and Third Claims for Relief), and was only applicable if those claims survived the motion to dismiss.8 The summary judgment motion was also noticed for March 12, 2001, the hearing date of the motion to dismiss. On February 28, 2001, in lieu of an opposition to the summary judgment motion, Plaintiffs filed a "Request to Deny or Continue Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment," invoking Rule 56(f). Plaintiffs claimed that summary judgment was premature without allowing them discovery on, inter alia, earlier versions of the script for "The Peacemaker," a two-page pitch "treatment" for the movie that was allegedly crucial to development, people who worked on the scripts and the film (such that they might be deposed), contract(s), if any, between the Dreamworks entities, the Cockburns, and Stern, and source materials allegedly given to Defendant Schiffer (screenwriter) by Defendant Spielberg. Defendants filed their Reply to this "Request" on March 5, 2001.

On March 12, 2001,9 the Court heard oral argument on the motions to dismiss and for summary judgment and, with minor modifications made based on the arguments raised in the hearing, signed its Order which granted in part and denied in part the motion to dismiss and denied without prejudice the motion for summary judgment. The March 12, 2001 Order (the "March 12 Order") granted Defendants' motion to dismiss as to Plaintiffs' First through Fourth and Tenth through Twelfth Claims for Relief. See, e.g., March 12 Order (Docket No. 62) at 43. This Order declined to consider, and thus denied, the motion to dismiss insofar as it applied to Plaintiffs' state law (Fifth through Ninth) Claims for Relief. The March 12 Order also denied Defendants' motion for summary judgment, as well as Plaintiffs' Rule 56(f) motion, both without prejudice to their re-filing, finding both motions mooted by the grant of the motion to dismiss as to the First and Second Claims.

Specifically, the Court concluded that Plaintiffs were barred from proceeding on the First (for Copyright Infringement) and Second (for Contributory Copyright Infringement) Claims for Relief because they had not yet obtained or submitted proofs of copyright for all of the allegedly copyrighted works on which these claims were based. As a result, the Court dismissed these claims, though without prejudice to their re-filing in a subsequent complaint should Plaintiffs succeed in obtaining certificates of copyright registration (or amendment of these claims in the FAC to rely only on works for which Plaintiffs had obtained registration certificates). On this basis, the Order also dismissed the Eleventh and Twelfth (for equitable remedies) Claims for Relief, with limited leave to amend. See March 12 Order at 30-31, 41.

In the Order, Plaintiffs were given until April 23, 2001 to file a Second Amended Complaint ("SAC") basing copyright claims only on any allegedly copyrighted works for which Plaintiffs had by then obtained certificates of registration. See March 12 Order at 31. The Order stipulated that if no SAC complying therewith was filed by that date, the First and Second Claims for Relief would be dismissed, without prejudice, based on the Court's lack of jurisdiction thereon. See id. The same deadline applied to Plaintiffs' ability to amend the Eleventh and Twelfth (equitable remedies) Claims for Relief. See id. at 41.10

The March 12 Order also dismissed, with prejudice, Plaintiffs' Third (Conspiracy to Infringe Copyright), Fourth (Unfair Competition under the Lanham Act), and Tenth (RICO) Claims for Relief. See id. at 32-41, 43. Also dismissed with prejudice were Plaintiffs' Eleventh and Twelfth Claims for Relief to the extent that they relied on the Lanham Act allegations. See id. at 41, 43. However, because it was at that point uncertain whether Plaintiffs would re-institute their copyright claims, the only remaining federal claims upon which this Court's original jurisdiction might be based, the Court declined to rule on Plaintiffs' state law claims (the Fifth through Ninth) because of the real possibility that it might decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over these claims should Plaintiffs not amend or re-file their copyright claims. The Court specifically stated that if no SAC was filed, and the First and Second Claims were dismissed, it would not exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims, and the entire case would be dismissed. See March 12 Order at 42-43.

On April 23, 2001, Plaintiffs filed their SAC, which is now the operative complaint in this matter. The SAC contains a total of 13 Claims for Relief.11 Without having sought or received leave from the Court to amend or add claims, and despite the fact that the Court in its March 12 Order was quite explicit that leave to amend was granted only as to the...

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