Classick v. Schell & Kampeter, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedMay 19, 2021
Docket2:18-cv-02344
StatusUnknown

This text of Classick v. Schell & Kampeter, Inc. (Classick v. Schell & Kampeter, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Classick v. Schell & Kampeter, Inc., (E.D. Cal. 2021).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 7 8 RICHARD DAVID CLASSICK, JR., No. 2:18-cv-02344-JAM-AC individually and on behalf of 9 all others similarly situated, 10 ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION Plaintiff, TO DISMISS 11 v. 12 SCHELL & KAMPETER, INC. d/b/a 13 DIAMOND PET FOODS, 14 Defendant. 15 16 Richard David Classick, Jr. (“Plaintiff”), the owner of a 17 Blue Nose American Pitbull named Otis, purchased Taste of the 18 Wild® dog food for his loyal companion until he discovered it 19 contains undisclosed levels of heavy metals, BPA, pesticides, 20 acrylamides and regrinds. Plaintiff brought a putative class 21 action against Schell & Kampeter, Inc. d/b/a Diamond Pet Foods 22 (“Defendant”), the company that manufactures, markets, and sells 23 Taste of the Wild® dog food. See Fourth Am. Compl. (“4AC”), ECF 24 No. 67. Defendant moves to dismiss. See Mot. to Dismiss 25 (“Mot.”), ECF No. 70.1 26

27 1 This motion was determined to be suitable for decision without oral argument. E.D. Cal. L.R. 230(g). The hearing was 28 scheduled for April 20, 2021. 1 I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 2 From approximately 2017 to 2018, Plaintiff purchased Taste 3 of the Wild® Grain Free High Prairie Canine Formula Roasted Bison 4 and Roasted Venison Dry Dog Food from Amazon.com. 4AC ¶ 18. 5 Plaintiff reviewed the nutritional claims and labels displayed on 6 Amazon’s website prior to purchasing the dog food. Id. From 7 what he read on Amazon’s website, Plaintiff believed that he was 8 feeding Otis a premium dog food that was healthy and nutritious. 9 Id. Defendant markets the Taste of the Wild® brand as a 10 “premium” dog food that is as “nature intended” and “based on 11 your pet’s ancestral diet.” See 4AC ¶¶ 27–33. The Taste of the 12 Wild® dog food also purports to use “the best nutrition 13 available” and is “processed under strict human-grade standards 14 to ensure purity.” See 4AC ¶¶ 34–35. 15 What Plaintiff did not know was that the dog food contains 16 some amount of heavy metals (including mercury, lead, arsenic, 17 and cadmium), bisphenol A (“BPA”), pesticides, acrylamide, and 18 regrinds. See 4AC ¶¶ 36–37, 65, 73, 80, 87, 91, 98, 101. That 19 information is not included on the packaging. 4AC ¶ 36. 20 Plaintiff, therefore, alleges that Defendant misleadingly assures 21 consumers that its dog food undergoes stringent testing and 22 quality controls and wrongfully fails to disclose to consumers 23 the presence of contaminants. See 4AC ¶¶ 100, 102, 105. 24 Plaintiff alleges that Defendant’s actions and omissions amount 25 to negligent misrepresentation, violation of the California 26 Consumer Legal Remedies Act (“CLRA”), and breach of the express 27 warranty. See 4AC ¶¶ 174–204. 28 Defendant moves to dismiss the 4AC in its entirety, arguing, 1 among other things, that Plaintiff does not adequately plead 2 actual or reasonable reliance and fails to allege a direct 3 transaction. See generally Mot. Plaintiff opposes the motion. 4 See Opp’n, ECF No. 77. 5 6 II. OPINION 7 A. Request for Judicial Notice 8 Defendant requests that the Court take judicial notice of a 9 copy of the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) Draft Guidance 10 for Industry #245, Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive 11 Controls for Food for Animals (Jan. 2018). See Req. for Judicial 12 Notice (“RJN”), ECF No. 71. Plaintiff opposes this request. See 13 Response to RJN, ECF No. 78. Judicial notice under Federal Rule 14 of Evidence 201 permits a court to notice an adjudicative fact 15 that is not subject to reasonable dispute. Khoja v. Orexigen 16 Therapeutics, Inc., 899 F.3d 988, 999 (9th Cir. 2018). “A fact 17 is not subject to reasonable dispute if it is generally known, or 18 can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose 19 accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.” Id. (internal 20 quotation marks and citation omitted). Thus, “a court may take 21 judicial notice of matters of public record without converting a 22 motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment.” Id. 23 However, “a court cannot take judicial notice of disputed facts 24 contained in such public records.” Id. 25 “[A] publicly available FDA guidance document, is [] 26 properly subject to judicial notice.” Immanuel Lake v. Zogenix, 27 Inc., 2020 WL 3820424, at *5 (N.D. Cal. 2020). “[C]ourts 28 routinely take judicial notice of [] FDA guidance documents, many 1 of which also appear on the FDA’s public website.” Id. (citing 2 Allen v. ConAgra Foods, Inc., 2018 WL 6460451, at *8 n.6 (N.D. 3 Cal. 2018)). The FDA’s Draft Guidance for Industry #245 is 4 currently accessible on the FDA’s website (specifically, at 5 https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance- 6 documents/cvm-gfi-245-hazard-analysis-and-risk-based-preventive- 7 controls-food-animals) as of the date of this order. Thus, its 8 “accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned,” making it subject to 9 judicial notice. See Fed. R. Evid. 201(b). 10 Accordingly, Defendant’s request for judicial notice is 11 GRANTED. The Court takes judicial notice of the document’s 12 existence. It does not take judicial notice of any disputed or 13 irrelevant facts within the document. 14 B. Legal Standard 15 Generally, to defeat a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a 16 plaintiff must “plead enough facts to state a claim to relief 17 that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 18 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). However, where the claims sound in 19 fraud (as claims of negligent misrepresentation and violations 20 of the CLRA do), they must be pled with particularity pursuant 21 to Rule 9(b). Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 567 F.3d 1120, 1124–25 22 (9th Cir. 2009). “Averments of fraud must be accompanied by the 23 who, what, when, where, and how of the misconduct charged.” Id. 24 at 1124 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Claims 25 of fraudulent omissions, like claims of fraudulent 26 misrepresentations, are subject to Rule 9(b)’s heightened 27 pleading standards. Id. at 1127. Where an omission is alleged, 28 plaintiffs at a minimum must “describe the content of the 1 omission and where the omitted information should or could have 2 been revealed.” Marolda v. Symantec Corp., 672 F.Supp.2d 992, 3 1002 (N.D. Cal. 2009). 4 C. Reasonable Reliance 5 Defendant’s leading argument is that all three of 6 Plaintiff’s claims fail because he has not pled facts supporting 7 actual and reasonable reliance, a necessary element of each. 8 See Mot. at 4–11; Shamsian v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 107 9 Cal.App.4th 967, 983 (2003) (“justifiable reliance on the 10 misrepresentation by the party to whom it was directed” is a 11 necessary element of negligent misrepresentation); Durrell v. 12 Sharp Healthcare, 183 Cal.App.4th 1350, 1366–67 (2010) (under 13 the CLRA, a “misrepresentation is material for a plaintiff only 14 if there is reliance—that is, without the misrepresentation, the 15 plaintiff would not have acted as he did.”); Nickerson v. 16 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Corp., 2020 WL 4937561, at *5 (C.D. 17 Cal. 2020) (for a breach of express warranty claim where the 18 parties are not in privity, “California law requires a showing 19 that a plaintiff relied on an alleged warranty.”). 20 Put another way, Defendant argues that Plaintiff has not 21 satisfied the “reasonable consumer standard,” which requires 22 that Plaintiff “show[s] that members of the public are likely to 23 be deceived.” Williams v. Gerber Prods., 552 F.3d 934, 938 (9th 24 Cir. 2008).

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Classick v. Schell & Kampeter, Inc., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/classick-v-schell-kampeter-inc-caed-2021.