CP Solutions PTE, Ltd. v. General Electric Co.

237 F.R.D. 534, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70193, 2006 WL 2779859
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedSeptember 27, 2006
DocketNo. 3:04CV2150 JBA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 237 F.R.D. 534 (CP Solutions PTE, Ltd. v. General Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
CP Solutions PTE, Ltd. v. General Electric Co., 237 F.R.D. 534, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70193, 2006 WL 2779859 (D. Conn. 2006).

Opinion

RULING ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO AMEND COMPLAINT [DOC. # 100]

ARTERTON, District Judge.

Plaintiff CP Solutions PTE, Ltd. (“CPS”), moves to amend its present complaint against defendants General Electric Company, GE Industrial Systems, GE Multilin [536]*536Power Management Lentronics, GE Fanuc Automation North America, and GE Meter (collectively, “GE”) to include reference to its parent corporation, Ultro Technologies, Ltd. (“Ultro”), add certain factual allegations, including new information regarding contract negotiation events prior to January 2003 (which was the time frame previously alleged), and include five new causes of action: breach of implied contract (Count IV); goods sold and delivered (Count VIII); a new claim of violation of the Connecticut Unfair Practices Act (“CUTPA”) (Count X); punitive damages under CUTPA (Count XI); and assignment of claims (Count XII). See PL Mot. [Doc. # 100] & Ex. A (proposed Second Amended Complaint).

Defendants oppose the proposed amendments, claiming that CPS had knowledge of all of the facts necessary to include them prior to CPS’s filing of the present complaint and offers no explanation for its delay in proposing them, contending that GE will be prejudiced if the amendments are allowed as they will necessitate additional discovery, extension of the current discovery deadline, and may result in postponement of the current trial date, and arguing that some of the proposed new claims are futile.

For the reasons that follow, CPS’s Motion for Leave to Amend will be granted.

I. Standard

After a responsive pleading has been filed, “a party may amend [its] pleading only by leave of court or by written consent of the adverse party; and leave shall be freely given when justice so requires.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a). “If the underlying facts or circumstances relied upon by a plaintiff may be a proper subject of relief, [it] ought to be offered an opportunity to test [its] claim on the merits. In the absence of any apparent or declared reason — such as undue delay, bad faith or dilatory motive on the part of the movant, 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 v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962).

Where the amendment is proposed after the filing of a responsive pleading, and following expiration of a court-ordered time period in which amendments will be permitted, “[t]he burden is on the party who wishes to amend to provide a satisfactory explanation for the delay.” Cresswell v. Sullivan & Cromwell, 922 F.2d 60, 72 (2d Cir.1990). “[A] finding of ‘good cause’ depends on the diligence of the moving party,” Parker v. Columbia Pictures Indus., 204 F.3d 326, 340 (2d Cir.2000), and “the court is free to conclude that ignorance of the law is an unsatisfactory excuse,” Cresswell, 922 F.2d at 72. “Mere delay, however, absent a showing of bad faith or undue prejudice, does not provide a basis for a district court to deny the right to amend.” Block v. First Blood Assocs., 988 F.2d 344, 350 (2d Cir.1993); accord Parker, 204 F.3d at 339.

In examining potential prejudice, courts “consider whether the assertion of the new claim would: (i) require the opponent to expend significant additional resources to conduct discovery and prepare for trial; (ii) significantly delay the resolution of the dispute; or (iii) prevent the plaintiff from bringing a timely action in another jurisdiction.” Block, 988 F.2d at 350. However, “the adverse party’s burden of undertaking discovery, standing alone, does not suffice to warrant denial of a motion to amend a pleading.” United States ex rel. Maritime Admin, v. Cont’l Ill. Nat’l Bank & Trust Co., 889 F.2d 1248, 1255 (2d Cir.1989).

II. Discussion

A. Delay

The Court finds that plaintiffs delay in proposing these new amendments, while substantial, is insufficient to justify denying its motion. Plaintiff claims the delay was due to discovery, which enabled a narrowing of the issues involved in the case. However, as defendants correctly note, plaintiffs proposed amendments do not narrow the issues, but instead broaden them by inserting additional factual allegations which expand the relevant time frame of contract negotiations, [537]*537as well as adding a new “player” — CPS’s parent Ultro — along with five new causes of action. Additionally, it seems unlikely that it was discovery itself which prompted these amendments, as CPS must have had, for the reasons detailed by defendant in its opposition memorandum, all of the information necessary to propose these amendments, when it filed its first amended complaint.

Nevertheless, as noted above, delay alone is an insufficient basis on which to deny a motion to amend and, further, while plaintiffs proposed amendments were significantly delayed, discovery was still ongoing when plaintiff filed its motion and the scheduled trial date was approximately 10 months away.

B. Prejudice

Likewise, the Court does not find that GE has identified any prejudice that would be sufficient to preclude plaintiff from interposing the proposed amendments. While it is true that CPS seeks to introduce a new “player,” Ultro, and to assert five new causes of action, plaintiff does not seek to join Ultro as a party-plaintiff and its references to Ultro are apparently for damages purposes only; moreover, while plaintiff styles its amendments as five new causes of action, as GE acknowledges two of the claims (XI and XII) are really just claims for additional damages, and the other three claims relate to the same subject matter as do those in the present complaint, although expanding the temporal scope somewhat. Thus, while GE will likely have to conduct some additional discovery relating to the new factual allegations and regarding Ultro, GE’s characterization that it will “be forced to undertake extensive additional discovery ... to respond to such dramatic changes in the case,” Def. Opp. [Doc. # 106] at 13, seems at least somewhat overblown.

Further, at the time plaintiffs motion to amend was filed, more than two months remained in the discovery period and, clearly, no summary judgment motion had yet been filed. Indeed, GE has recently requested a pre-filing conference for purposes of discussing its intention to file a motion to dismiss on subject matter jurisdiction grounds, and thus that motion will have to be briefed and decided by the Court before any summary judgment motion would even be contemplated. Moreover, although all of these events, including any additional discovery necessitated by plaintiffs proposed amendments, might entail postponing the current trial date of April 2007, GE admitted at the July 20, 2006 status conference that plaintiffs proposed amendments probably would not necessitate a longer trial.

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Bluebook (online)
237 F.R.D. 534, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70193, 2006 WL 2779859, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cp-solutions-pte-ltd-v-general-electric-co-ctd-2006.