Anderson v. DeJoy

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: January 26, 2023
• Docket: 2:22-cv-01394
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 9 VICTORIA ANDERSON, an individual, NO. 2:22-cv-01394-JHC 10 Plaintiff, STIPULATION FOR LEAVETO 11 AMENDPLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT v. AND ORDER 12 LOUIS DEJOY, in his capacity as the 13 Postmaster General of the United States Postal 14 Service, Defendant. 15 Defendant. 16 I. INTRODUCTION 17 Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(2) and LCR 15, the parties, by and through their 18 19 respective counsel of record, hereby stipulate to leave to amend the Plaintiff’s complaint in the 20 above-captioned case to subtract and supplement facts. In support of this Motion, Plaintiff 21 submits a proposed Amended Complaint, attached as Exhibit A to this Motion. Plaintiff further 22 requests the Court issue an Order stating that the Amended Complaint relate back to the 23 Complaint’s original filing date of September 29, 2022. 24 25 STIPULATION FOR LEAVE TO AMEND PLAINTIFF’S Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC COMPLAINT - 1 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600 1 II. BACKGROUND 2 Plaintiff filed this lawsuit on September 29th, 2022 and subsequently served the 3 Summons and Complaint on Defendants. Subsequently, it came to the attention of the Plaintiff 4 and Defendants that some of Plaintiff’s facts were time-barred and that the United States Postal 5 Service was not a proper party to this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c); 29 U.S.C. § 6 701,et seq. The parties stipulated and agreed to extend Defendant’s deadline to respond to the 7 8 Complaint by one week, to January 30, 2023. The partied now stipulate and agree to amend 9 Plaintiff’s Complaint. 10 11 III. ARGUMENT 12 Fed. R. Civ. P 15(a)(2) allows for the amendment of pleadings with leave of the court, 13 or with opposing counsel’s written consent, before trial. The Rule further provides that “the 14 15 court should freely give leave when justice so requires.” Id. 16 The Ninth Circuit has instructed that the Fed. R. Civ. P 15(a)(2) “should be interpreted 17 with ‘extreme liberality,’” Jackson v. Bank of Hawaii, 902 F.2d 1385, 1387 (9th Cir. 1990) 18 (quoting United States v. Webb, 655 F.2d 977, 979 (9th Cir. 1981)), and “[a]n outright refusal 19 to grant leave to amend without a justifying reason is … an abuse of discretion.” Smith v. 20 Constellation Brands, Inc., 2018 WL 991450, at *2 (9th Cir. Feb. 21, 2018) (quoting 21 Leadsinger, Inc. v. BMG Music Publ’g, 512 F.3d 522, 532 (9th Cir. 2008)). A district court 22 23 only has discretion to deny leave to amend “‘due to … repeated failure to cure deficiencies by 24 amendments previously allowed, undue prejudice to the opposing party by virtue of allowance 25 STIPULATION FOR LEAVE TO AMEND PLAINTIFF’S Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC COMPLAINT - 2 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600 1 of the amendment, [and] futility of amendment.’” Id. at *2 (quoting Zucco Partners, LLC v. 2 Digimarc Corp., 52 F.3d 981, 1007 (9th Cir. 2009) and Leadsinger, Inc., 512 F.3d at 532). 3 An amendment to a pleading relates back to the date of the original pleading when the 4 amendment changes the party against whom a claim is asserted if the amendment asserts a 5 claim that arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set out (or attempted to be set 6 out) in the original pleading. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(c)(1)(B). 7 8 9 DATED this 26th day of January, 2023. 10 s/Sumeer Singla NICHOLAS W. BROWN Sumeer Singla, WSBA # 32852 United States Attorney 11 Bethany Nolan, WSBA # 55788 WILLIAMS, KASTNER & GIBBS PLLC s/ Erin K. Hoar 12 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 ERIN K. HOAR, CA No. 311332 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 Assistant United States Attorney 13 Telephone: (206) 628-6600 United States Attorney’s Office 14 Fax: (206) 628-6611 700 Stewart Street, Suite 5220 ssingla@williamskastner.com Seattle, Washington 98101-1271 15 Phone: 206-553-7970 Attorneys for Plaintiff Fax: 206-553-4067 16 Email: erin.hoar@usdoj.gov 17 s/Lawand Anderson_________________ Lawand Anderson, WSBA # 49012 Attorney for Defendants 18 L.A. LAW & ASSOCIATES 22030 7th Ave. S., Ste. 103 19 Des Moines, WA 98198 Telephone: (206) 817-0577 20 Fax: (888) 694-2619 21 lawand@lalaw.legal 22 Attorney for Plaintiff 23 24 25 STIPULATION FOR LEAVE TO AMEND PLAINTIFF’S Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC COMPLAINT - 3 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600 1 ORDER 2 IT IS SOORDERED. 3 DATEDthis 26th day of January, 2023. 4 5 A 6 JOHN H. CHUN United States District Judge 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 STIPULATION FOR LEAVE TO AMEND PLAINTIFF’S Williams, Kastner & Gibbs PLLC COMPLAINT - 4 601 Union Street, Suite 4100 Seattle, WA 98101-2380 (206) 628-6600