McDonald v. Molina Health Care Inc

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: March 24, 2021
• Docket: 2:20-cv-01189
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 MARK MCDONALD, CASE NO. C20-1189-JCC 10 Plaintiff, MINUTE ORDER 11 v. 12 MOLINA HEALTHCARE, INC., a foreign profit corporation; and MOLINA 13 HEALTHCARE OF WASHINGTON, INC., a domestic profit corporation, 14 15 Defendants. 16 The following Minute Order is made by direction of the Court, the Honorable John C. 17 Coughenour, United States District Judge: 18 This matter comes before the Court on the corrected stipulation of dismissal filed by 19 Plaintiff Mark McDonald and Defendants Molina Healthcare, Inc. and Molina Healthcare of 20 Washington, Inc. (Dkt. No. 24). On March 15, 2021, the parties notified the Court by telephone 21 that their prior stipulation of dismissal (Dkt. No. 22) was entered in error. The parties intended 22 only to stipulate to dismissal of Plaintiff’s claims against Defendant Molina Healthcare, Inc., but 23 the stipulation incorrectly indicated that Plaintiff’s claims against both defendants were 24 dismissed. Accordingly, the Court VACATES its prior order dismissing all claims in this action 25 and directing the Clerk to close the case pursuant to the erroneous stipulation (Dkt. No. 23). The 26 1 Court also REINSTATES the previous case management deadlines (Dkt. No. 19). 2 The parties have now submitted a corrected stipulation of dismissal (Dkt. No. 24). Under 3 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), a plaintiff may dismiss claims against some or 4 all defendants by filing “a stipulation of dismissal signed by all parties who have appeared.” Fed. 5 R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(ii) (emphasis added); Wilson v. City of San Jose, 111 F.3d 688, 692 (9th 6 Cir. 1997). In the corrected stipulation, all parties that have appeared stipulate to the dismissal of 7 Plaintiff’s claims against Defendant Molina Healthcare, Inc. without prejudice and without an 8 award of attorneys’ fees or costs to any party. (Dkt No. 24.) Thus, under Federal Rule of Civil 9 Procedure 41(a)(1)(A), this stipulation is self-executing. Plaintiff’s claims against Defendant 10 Molina Healthcare, Inc. are dismissed without prejudice and without an award of fees or costs to 11 any party. 12 The Court previously deferred addressing Plaintiff and Defendant Molina Healthcare of 13 Washington, Inc.’s stipulation (Dkt. No. 17) for an order granting Plaintiff leave to file an 14 amended complaint. (Dkt. No. 18 at 2.) The stipulation is proper under Rule 15. See Fed. R. Civ. 15 P. 15(a)(2) (“a party may amend its pleading . . . with the opposing party’s consent”). “Once the 16 adverse party has consented to the amendment of a pleading, the court has no control over the 17 matter under Rule 15(a).” Fern v. United States, 213 F.2d 674, 677 (9th Cir. 1954). 18 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS the parties’ stipulated motion and grants Plaintiff leave to file 19 an amended complaint. Plaintiff must file the amended complaint within 14 days of the date of 20 this order. The amended complaint may not differ from the complaint attached to the parties’ 21 stipulation at Docket Number 17. 22 DATED this 24th day of March 2021. 23 William M. McCool Clerk of Court 24 s/Paula McNabb 25 Deputy Clerk 26