Rothschild v. The Pacific Companies

District Court, N.D. California·Decided June 24, 2025·No. 3:23-cv-01721·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 MAYER AMSCHEL ROTHSCHILD, Case No. 23-cv-01721-LJC

8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO 9 v. DISMISS

10 THE PACIFIC COMPANIES, Re: Dkt. No. 83 Defendant. 11

12 13 Before the Court is Defendant The Pacific Company’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff Mayer 14 Amschel Rothschild’s Fourth Amended Complaint. The Court held a hearing on this motion and 15 the pending motion to dismiss in the related case, Rothschild v. Gildred, 23-cv-02105-LJC (N.D. 16 Cal.), on June 17, 2025. Having considered the papers submitted by the parties and the oral 17 arguments presented, for the reasons discussed below, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is 18 GRANTED. Plaintiff’s claims for fraud, civil conspiracy, public nuisance, and punitive damages 19 are dismissed with prejudice. Plaintiff’s claim for private nuisance is dismissed without prejudice. 20 Plaintiff may file his Seventh Amended Complaint1 asserting a claim for private nuisance only by 21 July 14, 2025. 22 I. BACKGROUND2 23 Plaintiff previously lived with his former fiancé, Stephanie Gildred, in a multi-family 24 1 After filing his Fourth Amended Complaint, Plaintiff filed a Fifth and Sixth Amended Complaint 25 without leave of the Court. See ECF No. 79, 82. As discussed below, the Fifth and Sixth Amended Complaints are stricken. 26 2 Because a plaintiff’s factual allegations are generally taken as true in resolving a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), this section summarizes Plaintiff’s allegations as if true. Plaintiff’s 27 Fourth Amended Complaint, the operative complaint at this point in the litigation, is somewhat 1 residential apartment complex at 128 Lorton Avenue, Burlingame, California, owned by Gildred 2 and her property management company, Lorton Management Group (Lorton Management). 3 While Plaintiff was living at 128 Lorton with Gildred, Defendant began construction on a five- 4 story parking garage next door. See ECF No. 25 at 4.3 Defendant’s construction at the 5 neighboring property caused a nuisance that impacted Plaintiff and “a substantial number of 6 people within the community[.]” ECF No. 75 at 2-3. 7 At some point prior to July 2019, Defendant met with Plaintiff and Gildred to try to induce 8 Plaintiff to invest 128 Lorton Avenue in a property development venture. Id. at 2. Defendant told 9 Plaintiff that this investment was “risk-free and guaranteed to yield a 20% return within six 10 months[,]” but failed to inform Plaintiff that Defendant was under investigation for financial 11 misconduct. Id. at 1-2. Plaintiff invested in Defendant’s “business venture” and lost $5,000,000. 12 Id. at 2. Plaintiff moved out of 128 Lorton Avenue in December 2020 and sued Defendant in 13 April 2023 regarding the failed business venture, bringing claims for breach of quiet enjoyment, 14 strict liability, breach of warranty, negligence, and negligence per se. ECF No. 1. In May 2023, 15 Plaintiff sued Gildred and Lorton Management regarding the same dispute. See Rothschild v. 16 Gildred, 23-cv-02105-LJC (N.D. Cal. May 1, 2023), ECF No. 1. 17 Plaintiff requested leave to amend his complaint in this action, which was granted. 18 Rothschild v. The Pacific Companies, 23-cv-01721-LJC, ECF Nos. 15, 16. He amended his 19 complaint and then filed a Second Amended Complaint. ECF Nos. 18, 22. His Second Amended 20 Complaint asserts claims for civil conspiracy, fraud, tortious interference with a business 21 expectancy, breach of contract, nuisance, and personal injury. ECF No. 22. As Plaintiff had 22 applied to proceed in forma pauperis, the Court screened the operative Second Amended 23 Complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B) and dismissed it for failure to allege that the 24 Court had subject matter jurisdiction over the case. ECF No. 23. The Court advised Plaintiff that 25 the Second Amended Complaint was primarily comprised of “threadbare recitals of the elements 26 for each cause of action, which by itself is not enough to state a claim on which relief may be 27 1 granted.” Id. at 5 (quotations omitted). The Court explained that Plaintiff’s Third Amended 2 Complaint needed to “allege facts that are sufficient to support the elements of each of his claims” 3 rather than just list the elements. Id. Plaintiff then filed his Third Amended Complaint, asserting 4 claims for punitive damages, fraud, civil conspiracy, tortious interference with a business 5 expectancy, breach of contract and nuisance. ECF No. 25.4 Defendant filed a motion to dismiss, 6 which the Court granted in part and denied in part. ECF No. 73. The Court did not dismiss 7 Plaintiff’s claim for private nuisance. Id. at 17. The Court dismissed Plaintiff’s breach of contract 8 and tortious interference with business expectancy claims with prejudice and explained that 9 Plaintiff’s request for “punitive damages” was not a stand-alone cause of action. Id. at 12-13, 19. 10 The Court dismissed Plaintiff’s other claims—for fraud, civil conspiracy related to his fraud claim, 11 and public nuisance—without prejudice and instructed that Plaintiff could file an amended 12 complaint to “pursue any of the claims dismissed without prejudice[.]” Id. at 1, 13, 18. The Court 13 directed Plaintiff to file his Fourth Amended Complaint no later than March 25, 2025. Id. at 1. 14 Plaintiff proceeded to file his Fourth Amended Complaint on March 24, 2025, asserting 15 claims for fraud, civil conspiracy, nuisance, and punitive damages. ECF No. 75. He filed a 16 second copy of his Fourth Amended Complaint on April 4, 2025, which the Court struck as it was 17 filed without leave. ECF Nos. 79, 81.5 Plaintiff then requested that the case be stayed as he was 18 experiencing medical issues. ECF No. 80. The Court stayed the case for thirty days and extended 19 Defendant’s deadline to respond to Plaintiff’s Fourth Amended Complaint to May 8, 2025. ECF 20 No. 81. While the case was stayed and without leave of the Court, Plaintiff proceeded to file a 21 further amended complaint, his sixth, on May 5, 2025.6 ECF No. 82. The Sixth Amended 22 Complaint asserts claims for fraud, civil conspiracy, tortious interference with prospective 23 economic advantage, breach of contract, nuisance, negligence and intentional misconduct, and 24 unjust enrichment. Id. 25

26 4 Plaintiff appears to have filed two identical copies of his Third Amended Complaint, at ECF Nos. 24 and 25. The Court cites to the copy at ECF No. 25. 27 5 The Court refers to the complaint filed at ECF No. 79 as the Fifth Amended Complaint. 1 Pursuant to the Court’s previous order, Defendant filed its motion to dismiss the Fourth 2 Amended Complaint on May 7, 2025, arguing that Plaintiff had again failed to allege sufficient 3 facts to state a claim. ECF No. 83. Defendant requested that the Court strike Plaintiff’s Sixth 4 Amended Complaint as being untimely filed. Id. at 2 n.1. Plaintiff opposed the motion to dismiss, 5 Defendant filed a reply brief, and, without leave of the Court, Plaintiff filed a sur-reply. ECF Nos. 6 84, 86-87. The Court held a hearing the motion to dismiss on June 17, 2025. 7 II. SIXTH AMENDED COMPLAINT 8 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(1) provides that a “party may amend its pleading 9 once as a matter of course no later than” twenty-one days after service or twenty-one days after 10 service of a responsive pleading or motion. “In all other cases, a party may amend its pleading 11 only with the opposing party’s written consent or the court’s leave.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2).

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