Marinari v. Dunleavy

86 F.R.D. 127, 29 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 761, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10695
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 28, 1980
DocketCiv. A. No. 77-104
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 86 F.R.D. 127 (Marinari v. Dunleavy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marinari v. Dunleavy, 86 F.R.D. 127, 29 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 761, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10695 (E.D. Pa. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN MORGAN DAVIS, Senior District Judge.

This matter is currently before the Court for consideration of Plaintiff’s motion to amend complaint. Plaintiff has requested leave to amend his complaint to add a pendent state claim based on Defendants’ alleged negligence in failing to render adequate medical treatment to Plaintiff.

Plaintiff, Louis Marinari, filed this civil rights action against Mayor Frank Rizzo, the City of Philadelphia, Police Commissioner Joseph O’Neill, and individual police officers Richard Dunleavy, Donald Iannace and Louis Carmaratta. Plaintiff alleged the following facts. On June 6, 1976, Marinari’s parents returned home and discovered that their son (Plaintiff) had slashed his wrists in an apparent suicide attempt. Plaintiff’s parents then called the police for assistance. Defendant Dunleavy and several other unidentified police officers responded to the call. Upon the officers’ arrival at the Marinari home, Plaintiff’s parents sought the advice of the officers concerning their son’s drug problem. Defendant Dunleavy suggested that if Louis Marinari were arrested, Plaintiff could then be placed in a mandatory drug rehabilitation program. Accordingly, the Marinari’s searched their home and gave to the officers drugs which they found in their son’s possession. Marinari was subsequently taken to the police station, arraigned and released.

The following evening, June 7, 1976, it is alleged that the Plaintiff’s father found his son, with an empty pill container at his side, a number of pills having been scattered upon the floor. Mr. Marinari, thinking that his son had taken a drug overdose, again called the police for assistance. Defendants Dunleavy, Iannace and Carmaratta responded to the call. Upon the arrival of the police, Plaintiff’s father requested that they take his son to have his stomach pumped and to receive other appropriate medical treatment. Plaintiff was allegedly conscious at this time.

[129]*129Defendant officers took Plaintiff, first to a police station for questioning and then to the Police Administration Building. It was upon their arrival at the Police Administration Building, that the officers opened the door to the police van and discovered Plaintiff in a comatose condition. At that point, Plaintiff was immediately taken to a hospital. The amount of time which elapsed between the June 7, 1976 call to the police and the subsequent arrival of Plaintiff at the hospital was approximately two and one half hours.

Plaintiff brought this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiff alleges in his original complaint that due to Defendants’ deliberate indifference to his medical needs, he suffered violations of the rights guaranteed to him under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. On July 21, 1977, the motion to dismiss Defendants’ City of Philadelphia, Rizzo and O’Neill was granted.

The motion to amend the complaint, currently before this Court, raises two issues for decision. First, whether the Amendment is permitted under Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a) and 15(c). Second, whether this Amendment is permitted under the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction as set forth by the Supreme Court in United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1965).

After having heard oral argument on this matter and upon careful consideration of the facts, Plaintiff’s motion to amend complaint is hereby granted.

Rule 15(a), Fed.R.Civ.P. provides that a party may amend his complaint once as a matter of course prior to the service of a responsive pleading. However when, as in this case, the answer has already been served, Plaintiff may only amend his complaint “by leave of court or by written consent of the adverse party; and leave shall be freely given when justice is required.” An additional requirement which must be fulfilled in a case such as this is when the statute of limitations pertaining to the proposed claim has run, the amendment must “relate back” to the original pleading. Thus, “wherever the claim . asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original pleading, the amendment relates back to the date of the original pleading.” Rule 15(c), Fed.R.Civ.P.

The discretionary directive of Rule 15(a) has been interpreted by the Supreme Court as requiring the Court to grant an amendment when the following test has been satisfied: “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 the allowance of the amendment, futility of amendment — leave should be . ‘freely given’,” Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182, 83 S.Ct. 227, 230, 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962).

Defendants in this action have failed to show that any of the factors listed above exist. Defendants do claim that they would be prejudiced by an amendment at this date due to the fact that discovery proceedings have already been concluded. Defendants’ argument is that because discovery was taken with a view toward a civil rights claim and not a negligence claim, they would be prejudiced in that they would need to review all past discovery and perhaps take new discovery.

I do not find this claim to be meritorious. Although Defendants may have to review their files, this is not the type of prejudice that will serve to prevent an amendment. This seems to be nothing more than the work normally entailed in preparing any lawsuit for trial. Furthermore, I have decided to grant Plaintiff’s motion to reopen discovery. Thus, Defendants will have an opportunity to take any additional discovery on Plaintiff’s negligence claim felt to be necessary. This new discovery will undoubtedly entail Defendants’ review of its files and prejudice will no longer be a factor, as such a review will inure to the benefit of Defendants.

[130]*130In addition, none of the other factors cited by the Supreme Court are present in this case. See Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. at 178, 83 S.Ct. at 227. The amendment will not be futile in that Plaintiff’s proposed amendment purports to set forth a valid state claim of negligence. Furthermore, Plaintiff’s amendment is not a repeated attempt to cure deficiencies in his case. It is merely an additional claim to his already existing claim.

Finally, I find that there has been no undue delay, bad faith or dilatory motive on the part of plaintiff. See Penn Galvanizing Co. v. Lukens Steel Co., 65 F.R.D. 80 (E.D. Pa.1974).

Although Plaintiff’s amendment was filed more than three years after the cause of action arose in June, 1976, the delay was not caused by any improper motives. Part of the delay appears to have arisen from Plaintiff’s discharging his original counsel and substituting his present counsel in July of 1979, after the two year statute of limitations on a negligence action had expired.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McCutcheon v. State
746 P.2d 461 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1987)
Troxell v. Welch
687 S.W.2d 902 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 F.R.D. 127, 29 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 761, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marinari-v-dunleavy-paed-1980.