Assam v. Deer Park Spring Water, Inc.

163 F.R.D. 400, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20118, 1995 WL 603554
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 27, 1995
DocketNo. 94-CV-1576(JS)
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 163 F.R.D. 400 (Assam v. Deer Park Spring Water, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Assam v. Deer Park Spring Water, Inc., 163 F.R.D. 400, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20118, 1995 WL 603554 (E.D.N.Y. 1995).

Opinion

ORDER

SEYBERT, District Judge:

Upon reviewing the annexed report and recommendation of Magistrate Judge A. Simon Chrein made on September 8, 1995, to which the parties have filed no objections, the Court adopts the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation that plaintiffs motion to amend the complaint be granted.

SO ORDERED.

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

CHREIN, United States Magistrate Judge.

By order dated June 28, 1995, the Honorable Joanna Seybert referred the above referenced matter to the undersigned Magistrate Judge for a report and recommendation on plaintiffs motion to amend the complaint. For the reasons set forth below, it is my respectful recommendation that the motion be granted.

BACKGROUND:

On February 15, 1994, plaintiff, Yo Assam (“Assam”), filed a summons and complaint alleging that she fell and sustained severe personal injuries due to the negligence of the defendant, Deer Park Spring Water (“Deer Park”). The plaintiff alleges that on August 25, 1993, while she was working at her place of employment, she slipped and fell because of a leaking Deer Park water bottle which was placed on the carpet outside the kitchen area.

On April 15, 1994, a third party summons and complaint was filed by Deer Park against the plaintiffs employer, National Westminster Bank Corp., Inc. (“NatWest”), alleging that if Assam sustained her injuries in the manner alleged, then the injuries were caused by the negligence of NatWest in failing to properly maintain the water bottle in question, failing to maintain the immediate area surrounding the bottled water, failing to warn Assam and others of the existing conditions and in creating and causing a dangerous and hazardous condition to exist in the place where Assam was present. See Third Party Summons and Complaint, annexed as Exhibit 1 to Plaintiffs Notice of Motion to Amend the Complaint.

Assam now seeks to amend her original complaint against Deer Park to include causes of action for (1) strict products liability (2) breach of warranty and (3) failure to warn. Plaintiff alleges that she did not know until the recent deposition of Mr. Thomas Eder that Deer Park was responsible for the manufacturing, control, inspection and testing of the bottles in which the water they sold was distributed. See Plaintiffs Notice of Motion to Amend the Complaint, dated March 15, 1995. Deer Park alleges that it is not responsible for the manufacturing of the bottles and in addition, that Assam knew early on in the discovery process that they were responsible for inspection of the bottles. See Affirmation of Steven B. Getzoff in Opposition to the Motion to Amend the Complaint. Counsel for the defendant argues that the plaintiffs additional claims are without merit and that the plaintiff has delayed in moving to amend the complaint and that allowing amendment of the complaint would unduly prejudice the defendant. See Affirmation of Steven B. Getzoff in Opposition to the Motion to Amend the Complaint.

DISCUSSION:

I. Rule 15(a) Policy

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a) provides that leave to amend a pleading “shall be freely given when justice so requires.” Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 230, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962). The Courts have interpreted this provision liberally. Gillespie v. U.S. Steel Corp., 379 U.S. 148, 158, 85 S.Ct. 308, 314, 13 L.Ed.2d 199 (1964). “In the absence of any apparent or declared reason—such as undue delay, bad faith or dilatory motive on the part of the [404]*404movant, repeated failure to cure deficiencies by amendments previously allowed, undue prejudice to the opposing party by virtue of allowance of the amendment, futility of amendment, etc.—the leave sought should, as the rules require, be ‘freely given.”’ Foman, 371 U.S. at 182, 83 S.Ct. at 230. When permitting the amendment would require extensive preparation and consume extensive amounts of trial time to the detriment of a speedy resolution of the ease, the amendment should be denied. E.E.O.C. v. Sage Realty Corp. Inc., 87 F.R.D. 365, 371 (S.D.N.Y. 1980).

The District Court has broad discretion over whether to grant or deny the motion to amend, however outright refusal to grant the leave without any justifying reason appearing for the denial is an abuse of discretion and inconsistent with the spirit of the Federal Rules. Foman, 371 U.S. at 182, 83 S.Ct. at 230. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a) dictates that motions to amend complaints be liberally granted absent a good reason to the contrary, allowing disputes to be resolved upon the merits rather than on the basis of procedural technicalities. Foman, 371 U.S. 178, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962). See also Matter of Oswego Barge Corp., 439 F.Supp. 312, 323 (N.D.N.Y.1977). It is desirable to have all aspects of a litigation terminated at one time, thus, negating any possibility of fragmented suits. Hood v. P. Ballantine and Sons, 38 F.R.D. 502, 503 (S.D.N.Y.1965).

II. Merit to Causes of Action—Futility of the Amendment

When leave to amend the complaint would be futile, the motion to amend should be denied. Long v. United States Dep’t of Defense, 616 F.Supp. 1280, 1284 (E.D.N.Y. 1985). The defendants argue that there is no merit to the three causes of action sought to be added to the original complaint in this action. To sustain its right to amend the complaint, the plaintiff does not have to prove all the elements of the proposed claim; it is sufficient if plaintiff demonstrates there is some plausible basis in the record to support these claims. Island Creek Coal Co. v. Lake Shore, Inc., 832 F.2d 274 (4th Cir.1987).

A. Breach of Warranty:

The plaintiff seeks to add breach of warranty as a cause of action in this law suit. The defendant argues that the plaintiff should not be allowed to add a breach of warranty cause of action, because Deer Park did not sell water bottles, but provided a water delivery service to Natwest. The defendant claims this cause of action can not be added because there was no sale under Article 21 of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”). Both sides cite cases that discuss the distinction between contracts for sales or services. Triangle Underwriters, Inc. v. Honeywell Inc., 604 F.2d 737, 742-43 (2d Cir.1979), states that the test for determining whether the contract is for the sale of goods or services is straight-forward:

“A contract is for ‘services’ rather than ‘sale’ when ‘service predominates’ and the sale of items is ‘incidental’....

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163 F.R.D. 400, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20118, 1995 WL 603554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/assam-v-deer-park-spring-water-inc-nyed-1995.