Jeremy Holland v. Golden Soup Restaurant Inc.

• Court: District Court, C.D. California
• Decided: February 18, 2020
• Docket: 2:19-cv-08714
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 JEREMY HOLLAND, ) Case No. CV 19-8714 FMO (AFMx) ) 12 Plaintiff, ) ) 13 v. ) ORDER DISMISSING ACTION WITHOUT ) PREJUDICE 14 GOLDEN SOUP RESTAURANT, INC., ) ) 15 Defendant. ) ) 16 17 The court has received plaintiff’s Notice of Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice, filed on 18 February 7, 2020. (See Dkt. 14, Notice of Voluntary Dismissal). Because defendant has filed an 19 Answer to plaintiff’s Complaint, (Dkt. 12), the court will construe plaintiff’s filing as a Motion to 20 Dismiss the Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(2). 21 Once an answer has been filed to the operative complaint, a plaintiff may dismiss an action 22 only by court order and on terms that the court considers proper. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(2). 23 Although defendant has filed an answer to the Complaint, that is an insufficient basis to deny 24 plaintiff’s request for dismissal. See, e.g., Hamilton v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., 679 F.2d 25 143, 146 (9th Cir. 1982) (“The very purpose of Rule 41(a)(2) is to allow a District Court, in its 26 discretion, to dismiss an action without prejudice even after responsive pleadings have been filed 27 by the defendant.”); see also id. at 145 (“The Ninth Circuit has long held that the decision to grant 28 1 Court[.]”). Under the circumstances, the court is persuaded that defendants will not suffer any 2 legal prejudice by the dismissal of the Complaint without prejudice. See id. (“In ruling on a motion 3 for voluntary dismissal, the District Court must consider whether the defendant will suffer some 4 plain legal prejudice as a result of the dismissal.”); Waller v. Financial Corp. of Am., 828 F.2d 579, 5 583 (9th Cir. 1987) (“In this circuit, as elsewhere, a district court should grant a motion for 6 voluntary dismissal unless a defendant can show that it will suffer some plain legal prejudice as 7 a result.”). 8 Based on the foregoing, IT IS ORDERED THAT: 9 1. Plaintiff’s Notice of Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice (Document No. 14) shall be 10 construed as plaintiff’s Motion to Dismiss the Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil 11 Procedure 41(a)(2). Plaintiff’s motion is granted. 12 2. Judgment shall be entered dismissing the action without prejudice. 13 3. The Clerk shall serve copies of this Order and the Judgment on all parties. 14 Dated this 18th day of February, 2020. 15 /s/ Fernando M. Olguin 16 United States District Judge 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28