In re Nutanix, Inc. Securities Litigation

District Court, N.D. California·Decided August 16, 2021·No. 3:19-cv-01651·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 RYAN SCHELLER, et al., Case No. 19-cv-01651-WHO

8 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR 9 v. LEAVE TO SUPPLEMENT SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT 10 NUTANIX, INC., et al., Re: Dkt. No. 229 Defendants. 11

12 13 Lead plaintiff California Ironworkers Field Pension Trust (the “Pension Trust”) moves for 14 leave to supplement the Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”). Defendants Nutanix, Inc., Chief 15 Executive Officer Dheeraj Pandey, and Chief Financial Officer Duston M. William (collectively 16 “Nutanix”) oppose and assert that the motion does not satisfy pleading requirements and violates 17 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11. Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7-1(b), this matter is appropriate 18 for resolution without oral argument. I VACATE the hearing scheduled for August 18, 2021. For 19 the reasons explained below, the Pension Trust’s motion satisfies pleading standards and does not 20 violate Rule 11. I GRANT the Pension Trust’s motion. 21 BACKGROUND 22 This case is a putative class action brought against Nutanix alleging violations of federal 23 securities law from March 1, 2018 through May 30, 2019. On July 10, 2019, I appointed Shimon 24 Hedvat as lead plaintiff and appointed his selected counsel, Levi & Korsinsky, LLP (“Levi & 25 Korsinsky”) as lead counsel. Dkt. No. 87. On September 9, 2019, Hedvat, along with the City of 26 Miami Fire Fighters’ and Police Officers’ Retirement Trust (“Miami F&P”) filed a Consolidated 27 Amended Complaint (“Complaint”). Dkt. No. 102 (“Compl.”). The allegations in the Complaint 1 identified as confidential witnesses (“CWs”). Id. ¶¶ 50–56. On April 17, 2020, plaintiffs filed the 2 SAC. Dkt. No. 124 (“SAC”). The SAC added new allegations based on statements purportedly 3 made by five new CWs. SAC ¶¶ 50–61. 4 On March 1, 2021, I granted the withdrawal of Hedvat as lead plaintiff, Dkt. No. 171, and 5 a few days later, I ordered the parties to submit a proposed case management schedule within ten 6 days of my order appointing a new lead plaintiff, Dkt. No. 173. On June 10, 2021, I appointed the 7 Pension Trust and its counsel, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (“Robbins Geller”), as lead 8 plaintiff and lead counsel. Dkt. No. 224. After the appointment, Robbins Geller and Nutanix’s 9 counsel disputed whether the Pension Trust needed to submit its own complaint before the 10 negotiations about the proposed schedule began. Dkt. No. 231-1 (“Seite Decl.”) ¶¶ 2–3; Dkt. No. 11 234 (“Black Decl.”) ¶¶ 4–5. As a compromise, Robbins Geller agreed to file a Rule 15(d) motion 12 and supplement the SAC to add the Pension Trust as a party. Seite Decl. ¶ 3; Black Decl. ¶ 6. On 13 July 8, 2021, the Pension Trust filed a motion for leave to supplement the SAC (“Motion to 14 Supplement”). Dkt. No. 229 (“Mot.”). 15 LEGAL STANDARD 16 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(d) states that “[o]n motion and reasonable notice, the 17 court may, on just terms, permit a party to serve a supplemental pleading setting out any 18 transaction, occurrence, or event that happened after the date of the pleading to be supplemented.” 19 FED. R. CIV. P. 15(d). “The legal standard for granting or denying a motion to supplement under 20 Rule 15(d) is the same as for amending one under Rule 15(a).” Paralyzed Veterans of America v. 21 McPherson, 2008 WL 4183981, at *25 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 9, 2008). When assessing whether leave 22 is appropriate, courts generally consider five factors: “(1) undue delay, (2) bad faith or dilatory 23 motive on the part of the movant, (3) repeated failure of previous amendments, (4) undue 24 prejudice to the opposing party, and (5) futility of the amendment.” Lyon v. United States 25 Immigration & Customs Enforcement, 308 F.R.D. 203, 214 (N.D. Cal. 2015). “The court should 26 freely give leave when justice so requires.” FED. R. CIV. P. 15(a). But futility may, on its own, 27 justify denying a motion to supplement and “futile amendments should not be permitted.” See 1 DISCUSSION 2 The Pension Trust seeks to supplement the SAC and make the following three revisions: 3 1. The words “Shimon Hedvat” on page 1 of the SAC are replaced with “California 4 Ironworkers Field Pension Trust.” 5 2. The words “undersigned Lead Counsel” on page 1 of the SAC are replaced with 6 “counsel.” 7 3. Paragraph 40 of the SAC is replaced in its entirety with the following: “Lead 8 Plaintiff California Ironworkers Field Pension Trust purchased Nutanix common 9 stock during the Class Period, as set forth in the certification filed with its lead 10 plaintiff application (ECF No. 185-1), incorporated by reference herein, and was 11 damaged thereby.” 12 Dkt. No. 229-1 (“Proposed Supplement”) at 3. Nutanix opposes and asserts that the Motion to 13 Supplement should be denied because it fails to meet pleading standards and it violates Federal 14 Rule of Civil Procedure 11 and is therefore futile. Nutanix is wrong. The Motion to Supplement 15 satisfies pleading requirements and does not violate Rule 11. 16 I. THE MOTION TO SUPPLEMENT COMPLIES WITH PLEADING REQUIREMENTS 17 First, Nutanix argues that the Pension Trust’s motion should be denied because the Pension 18 Trust failed to attach a copy of the entire proposed complaint in violation of Civil Local Rule 19 10-1. Mot. at 1. The rule recites, “Any party filing or moving to file an amended pleading must 20 reproduce the entire proposed pleading and may not incorporate any part of a prior pleading by 21 reference.” Civil L.R. 10-1. In this case, the Pension Trust did not need to attach a copy of the 22 entire proposed complaint because its motion is to supplement the SAC, not amend the SAC.1 See 23 Patkins v. Lisk, No. 16-CV-04347-TSH, 2020 WL 5760477, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 28, 2020) 24 25 1 The cases Nutanix relies upon are distinguishable because they concern motions for leave to 26 amend, not supplement, the complaint. See, e.g., Montoya v. City of San Francisco, No. 17-CV-06534-JD, 2021 WL 197659 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 20, 2021) (rejecting plaintiffs’ argument that 27 the third amended complaint should be read as a supplemental briefing); Cunningham v. 1 (granting the motion to supplement without an attachment of the proposed complaint); see also 2 Dkt. No. 234-1 (proposed supplement in Patkins). The Pension Trust’s motion concerns events 3 that occurred after the Complaint—the appointment of a new lead plaintiff—not before and so its 4 motion is appropriately considered as a Rule 15(d) motion to supplement the SAC. Compare FED. 5 R. CIV. P. 15(d) (“the court may, on just terms, permit a party to serve a supplemental pleading 6 setting out any transaction, occurrence, or event that happened after the date of the pleading to be 7 supplemented”) with FED. R. CIV. P. 15(a) (relating to “matters that occurred prior to the filing of 8 the original pleading, and entirely replace the earlier pleading”). 9 Nutanix also argues that the proposed revisions do not meet the pleading standard because 10 the Proposed Supplement fails to provide “simple and plain notice” of the parties that Nutanix is 11 litigating against and the basis of the claims. Dkt. No. 231 (“Opp.”) at 6–8. The first proposed 12 revision seeks to replace Hedvat with the Pension Trust so that the sentence would read, “Lead 13 Plaintiff California Ironworkers Field Pension Trust and plaintiff City of Miami Fire Fighters’ and 14 Police Officers’ Retirement Trust (“Plaintiffs”) bring this action against Nutanix, Inc. . . . .” 15 Proposed Supplement at 1; SAC at 1. Miami F&P is represented by Levi & Korsinsky, not 16 Robbins Geller.

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