Jenkins v. Prime Washington, LLC

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 6 * * *

7 RENEE JENKINS, Case No. 2:20-cv-0074-KJD-VCF

8 Plaintiff, ORDER

9 v.

10 PRIME WASHINGTON, LLC, d/b/a CORNERSTONES CROSSINGS 11 APARTMENTS, et al.,

12 Defendants.

13 Presently before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Voluntary Dismissal (#8). Defendant 14 Prime Washington, LLC (“Prime”) filed a response in opposition (#10) to which Plaintiff replied 15 (#14). 16 Plaintiff seeks to voluntarily dismiss this action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil 17 Procedure (“Rule”) 41(a)(2), because Prime has already filed its answer (#4). A district court 18 should grant a motion for voluntary dismissal under Rule 41(a)(2)4 unless a defendant can show 19 that it will suffer some plain legal prejudice as a result. See Smith v. Lenches, 263 F.3d 972, 975 20 (9th Cir. 2001)(citing Waller v. Fin. Corp. of Am., 828 F.2d 579, 583 (9th Cir.1987); see also 21 Hamilton v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 679 F.2d 143, 145–46 (9th Cir.1982)). 22 Defendant’s opposition focuses mostly on Plaintiff’s motive, trying to keep the action in 23 state court. The Ninth Circuit has previously found that forum shopping alone does not meet the 24 definition of legal prejudice: “legal prejudice means prejudice to some legal interest, some legal 25 claim, some legal argument.” Lenches, 263 F.3d at 976 (citing Westlands Water Dist. v. United 26 States, 100 F.3d 94, 97 (9th Cir. 1996)(internal quotations omitted). Here, Defendant’s concern 27 that he will have to litigate this case again in state court or will have to remove this action a 28 second time do not constitute legal prejudice. See Id. (citing Westlands, 100 F.3d at 96-7; 1 Hamilton v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 679 F.2d 143, 145-56 (9th Cir. 1982)(plain legal prejudice does not result merely because defendant is inconvenienced by having to defend in 3 | another forum even when Plaintiff would gain a tactical advantage). Further, remedy is available if this action is refiled. Rule 41(d) allows the new court to order the plaintiff to pay all or part of 5 | the costs of the previous action. 6 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Plaintiffs Motion for Voluntary Dismissal 7| (#8) GRANTED; 8 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this action is DISMISSED without prejudice. 9 | Dated this 9th day of September, 2020. 10 | ™ 11 - tN xm ent J. Dawson 12 United States District Judge 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

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