Lath v. Oak Brook Condo. Owners' Ass'n
| Citation | 2017 DNH 052 |
| Decision Date | 20 March 2017 |
| Docket Number | Civil No. 16-cv-463-LM |
| Parties | Sanjeev Lath v. Oak Brook Condominium Owners' Association, Cheryl Vallee, Perry Vallee, William Quinn Morey, Gerald Dufresne, Christos Klardie, Vickie Grandmaison, Patty Taylor, Betty Mullen, Scott Sample, John Bisson, and Warren Mills |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Hampshire |
2017 DNH 052
Sanjeev Lath
v.
Oak Brook Condominium Owners' Association, Cheryl Vallee,
Perry Vallee, William Quinn Morey, Gerald Dufresne,
Christos Klardie, Vickie Grandmaison, Patty Taylor,
Betty Mullen, Scott Sample, John Bisson, and Warren Mills
Civil No. 16-cv-463-LM
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
March 20, 2017
ORDER
Pro se plaintiff Sanjeev Lath, who owns a unit in the Oak Brook Condominium, asserts several dozen federal and state claims against the Oak Brook Condominium Unit Owner's Association ("Association"); the Association's attorney (John Bisson); six current or former members of the Association's board of directors, some of whom are current or former officers (Cheryl Vallee, Perry Vallee, William Morey, Christos Klardie, Patty Taylor, Warren Mills); two current or former employees of the Association (Vickie Grandmaison and Scott Sample); and two unit owners (Gerald Dufresne and Betty Mullen). The operative complaint in this case is Lath's first amended complaint ("FAC"), which he filed as a matter of course pursuant to Rule 15(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("Federal Rules").
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After Lath filed his FAC, three motions to dismiss were filed, one by the Association, Cheryl Vallee, Perry Vallee, Morey, Klardie, Grandmaison, Taylor, and Sample (hereinafter "principal motion to dismiss"); one by Bisson; and one by Mullen. Subsequently, Mills joined the principal motion to dismiss. Dufresne is the only defendant who has not moved to dismiss the FAC. Plaintiff has not objected to any of the three motions to dismiss but, rather, has moved for leave to file a second amended complaint ("SAC"), pursuant to Rule 15(a)(2). An objection to plaintiff's motion for leave to amend has been filed by the Association, Cheryl Vallee, Perry Vallee, Morey, Klardie, Grandmaison, Taylor, Sample, Mills, and Mullen (hereinafter "ten defendants"), and a second objection has been filed by Bisson. Dufresne is the only defendant who has not objected to plaintiff's motion for leave to amend. For the reasons described below, Lath's motion for leave to amend is granted in part, and the three pending motions to dismiss are denied as moot.
Because plaintiff has already amended his complaint once, as a matter of course, any subsequent amendment is governed by the following rule:
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[A] party may amend its pleading only with the opposing party's written consent or the court's leave. The court should freely give leave when justice so requires.
Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2). However, while
courts "should freely give leave when justice so requires," id., amendments may be denied for several reasons, including "undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive of the requesting party, repeated failure to cure deficiencies, and futility of amendment."
Hagerty, ex rel. U.S. v. Cyberonics, Inc., 844 F.3d 26, 34 (1st Cir. 2016) (quoting U.S. ex rel. Rost v. Pfizer, Inc., 507 F.3d 720, 733-34 (1st Cir. 2007); citing Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182 (1962)). "[I]n assessing futility, the district court must apply the standard which applies to motions to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6)." Morgan v. Town of Lexington, 823 F.3d 737, 742 (1st Cir. 2016) (quoting Adorno v. Crowley Towing & Transp. Co., 443 F.3d 122, 126 (1st Cir. 2006)).
Under Rule 12(b)(6), the court must accept the factual allegations in the complaint as true, construe reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor, and "determine whether the factual allegations in the plaintiff's complaint set forth a plausible claim upon which relief may be granted." Foley v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 772 F.3d 63, 71 (1st Cir. 2014) (citation omitted). A claim is facially plausible "when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the
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misconduct alleged." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). Analyzing plausibility is "a context-specific task" in which the court relies on its "judicial experience and common sense." Id. at 679. Finally, in light of plaintiff's pro se status, the court must construe his pleadings liberally. See Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94 (2007).
In the first part of this section, the court explains its decision to grant plaintiff's motion to amend his FAC. Then, in the second part, the court evaluates each of the claims asserted in the SAC to determine which of them shall remain a part of this case moving forward.
A. Motion for Leave to Amend
The ten defendants argue that plaintiff's motion for leave to amend his FAC should be denied because: (1) it was filed in bad faith or with a dilatory motive; (2) amendment would be futile; and (3) plaintiff has failed to comply with the requirements of Local Rule 15(a). Bisson argues that the motion should be denied because: (1) plaintiff has failed to comply with Rule 15(a); (2) plaintiff has already had one chance to cure any deficiencies in his complaint; and (3) amendment would be futile.
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1. LR 15(a)
Plaintiff's FAC (237 paragraphs, 84 pages) asserts 16 claims. In his motion for leave to amend, plaintiff says that his "proposed amendment would clarify the specific allegations without significantly expanding or altering the scope of this action," Pl.'s Mot. for Leave to Amend (doc. no. 48) ¶ 7, and that his "amendment merely provides specific details, incidents, dates and exhibits," id. ¶ 11. Yet, while plaintiff's FAC asserts 16 claims, his proposed SAC (406 paragraphs, 95 pages) asserts more than 40 claims. Some are identical to claims asserted in the first amended complaint,1 but, necessarily, others are entirely new.2
Understandably concerned by the differences between the FAC and the proposed SAC, both the ten defendants and Bisson point out, correctly, that plaintiff has failed to comply with the local rules of this court, which require plaintiffs moving to amend their complaints to, among other things, "(ii) identify in the motion or a supporting memorandum any new factual allegations, legal claims, or parties, and (iii) explain why any
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new allegations, claims, or parties were not included in the original filing." LR 15.1(a). Lath concedes that he has not complied with LR 15.1(a). However, denying Lath's motion for failure to comply with LR 15.1(a) would merely invite another motion for leave to amend, and another round of objections. In the interest of conserving the resources of the parties, the court allows Lath's motion despite a lack of compliance with LR 15.1(a).
2. Dilatory Motive/Opportunity to Cure
In reliance upon a chronicle of plaintiff's history of litigation in other fora, and this court's characterization of plaintiff's "numerous recent filings [in this case as] burdensome to the court and defendants," Order (doc. no. 49) 2, the ten defendants argue that plaintiff's attempt to amend his complaint is nothing more than a further use of the legal process to harass them. Bisson makes a similar point in his argument that plaintiff has already had a sufficient opportunity to cure any deficiencies in his original complaint. While sympathetic to defendants' concern over having to defend against a stream of claims that seems to continually shift and widen, the court is also mindful of the indulgence it must afford Lath's pleadings, given his status as a pro se litigant. See Erickson, 551 U.S. at 94. In the end, the court declines
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defendant's request to deny plaintiff's motion on grounds of a dilatory motivation. However, for the reasons explained below, the court dismisses nine claims for failure to meet the Rule 12(b)(6) standard and dismisses five state law claims for lack of jurisdiction.
3. Futility
Leave to amend a complaint may be denied if "the complaint, as amended, would fail to state a claim upon which relief could be granted." D'Agostino v. ev3, Inc., 845 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 2016) (quoting Glassman v. Computervision Corp., 90 F.3d 617, 623 (1st Cir. 1996); citing 3 Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 15.08[f], at 15-80 (2d ed. 1993)). As the court explains in more detail in the section that follows, Causes 1, 4, 10, 14, 15, 18, 27, 29, and 30 of the SAC state claims upon which relief can be granted. Accordingly, plaintiff's motion for leave to amend cannot be denied on grounds of futility.
4. Summary
The Federal Rules provide that, generally speaking, leave to amend a complaint should be freely given. While there are exceptions to that general rule, see Hagerty, 844 F.3d at 34, none of them applies to the circumstances of this case. Accordingly, Lath's motion for leave to amend his FAC is
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granted, which makes the SAC the operative complaint in this case.
B. Claims Moving Forward
While Lath's SAC is now the operative complaint, the court appreciates the difficulties of defending against a 95-page complaint that comes nowhere close to meeting the "short and plain statement" requirement of Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules. The court also appreciates the challenges in terms of efficiency and economy that would result from directing Lath to correct the deficiencies in the SAC. In addition, the court recognizes that in their three motions to dismiss the FAC, and in their two objections to plaintiff's motion for leave to amend, defendants have argued that some of plaintiff's claims do not pass muster under Rule 12(b)(6), and that the court should decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over some of plaintiff's state law claims. Moreover, plaintiff has had an opportunity to respond to all of those arguments.
In the interest of clarifying and simplifying things for both sides, in the interest of conserving the resources of all parties, and in the interest of judicial economy, the court will devote the remainder of this order to evaluating each of the claims asserted in the SAC. As a result of that analysis, the court will place each of those claims into one of four
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categories: (1) claims that may proceed because...
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