SOUTHERN PINE CREDIT UNION v. COACTION GLOBAL, INC.

CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 28, 2023
Docket7:22-cv-00052
StatusUnknown

This text of SOUTHERN PINE CREDIT UNION v. COACTION GLOBAL, INC. (SOUTHERN PINE CREDIT UNION v. COACTION GLOBAL, INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SOUTHERN PINE CREDIT UNION v. COACTION GLOBAL, INC., (M.D. Ga. 2023).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA VALDOSTA DIVISION

SOUTHERN PINE CREDIT UNION : : Plaintiff, : : v. : CASE NO.: 7:22-CV-00052 (WLS) : SOUTHWEST MARINE AND : GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, : COACTION GLOBAL, INC., f/k/a : PROSIGHT GLOBAL, INC., and : PROSIGHT SPECIALTY : INSURANCE INC., : : Defendants. : : ORDER Before the Court are the following four1 pending motions: Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion to Dismiss Defendant Coaction Global (Doc. 20); Defendant Coaction Global’s Motion (Doc. 25), requesting to join Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion (Doc. 20), or in the alternative, independently requesting to remove itself as a party or/and to dismiss Plaintiff’s claims as to itself pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim (Doc. 20); and Plaintiff’s Motion to Amend/Correct its Complaint (Doc. 43). BACKGROUND & PROCEDURAL HISTORY Plaintiff Southern Pine Credit Union filed its Complaint (Doc. 1) against Defendant Southwest Marine and Defendant Coaction Global, formerly known as “Prosight Global Inc. and Prosight Specialty Insurance,” on June 7, 2022. (Doc. 1). Therein, Plaintiff Southern

1 Technically, Defendants’ Motion (Doc. 25) to “join Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion to dismiss Coaction Global and Prosight from the lawsuit, or in the alternative, Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6)” is one, single motion; however, because it is making two different requests ((i) drop Coaction Global and Prosight from lawsuit or/and (ii) dismiss the claims under Rule12(b)(6)), the Court considers it as two motions and addresses the two requests separately. Pine seeks declaratory judgments and monetary damages for breach of contract and bad faith. (Id.) Plaintiff is a credit union located in Valdosta, Georgia. (Doc. 1). Beginning in or about April 2014, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Southwest Marine and Defendant Coaction Global issued the bonds at issue in this case. (Id.) In exchange for Plaintiff’s payments of the premiums, Defendants were to provide coverage to Plaintiff for losses arising from acts of Employee/Director Dishonesty. (Id.) Defendant Southwest Marine is an Arizona insurance company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York Marine. (Doc. 14). New York Marine is a New York insurance company, whose parent company is Coaction Specialty Insurance Group. (Id.) Coaction Specialty Insurance Group’s parent company is Defendant Coaction Global. (Id.) In other words, Defendant Coaction Global is the ultimate parent company of Defendant Southwest Marine. On July 5, 2022, Defendant Southwest Marine filed its Answer and a counterclaim against Plaintiff, seeking attorneys’ fees and costs and Declaratory Judgment. (Doc. 14, at 23–50). Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant Southern Pine filed its Answer (Doc. 24) to the counterclaim a few weeks later. On July 20, 2022, Defendant Southwest Marine filed the instant Motion to Dismiss Defendant Coaction Global as a party in this case (Doc. 20). About a month later, Defendant Coaction Global filed its Motion (Doc. 25) to join Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 20), or in the alternative, independently move to merely drop itself as a party (rather than dismiss the entire lawsuit) or/and move to dismiss claims under Rule 12(b)(6) only as to itself. On August 22, 2022, Plaintiff Southern Pine filed its Response (Doc. 28), addressing both Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion (Doc. 20) and Defendant Coaction Global’s Motion (Doc. 25). About a month later, Defendant Coaction Global filed its Reply (Doc. 39) to Plaintiff’s Response (Doc. 28). After holding an in-person initial discovery conference with Parties’ counsel, the Court entered the scheduling/discovery Order on September 1, 2022. (Doc. 22). A few days later, the Parties filed a Stipulation (Doc. 33), clarifying that Plaintiff did not intend to and did not sue Prosight, Defendant Coaction Global’s former identity/name, as a separate independent party in this action. Further, the Stipulation specified that Plaintiff intended to, and did, sue Defendant Coaction Global.2 (Doc. 33). On November 29, 2022, Plaintiff filed its Motion to Amend/Correct its Complaint. (Doc. 43). Defendants filed their Response on January 3, 2023. (Doc. 50). Plaintiff filed its Reply (Doc. 55) on January 19, 2023. DISCUSSION I. Defendants’ Request to Drop Defendants Coaction Global and Prosight as a Party Pursuant to Rule 21 (Doc. 20)

Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Coaction Global and Prosight pursuant to Rule 21 (Doc. 20) is DENIED as moot. Therein, Defendants ask the Court to drop Prosight from the lawsuit because it is no longer a cognizable legal entity and to drop Coaction Global from the lawsuit because it has “no relation to this action other than being the ultimate parent company of. . . Southwest Marine.” (Doc. 20, at 2–3). The Court denies this instant Motion (Doc. 20) as moot because of two reasons. First, the Joint Stipulation (Doc. 33) stipulates that Plaintiff “did not intend to, and did not, sue Prosight as a separate and independent party in this action. Rather, Plaintiff intended to, and did, sue Coaction Global. . . .” (Doc. 33, at 1–2). Second, the Court addresses Defendants’ request to drop Coaction Global from the lawsuit in Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Coaction Global Pursuant to Rule 21 or, in the Alternative, Motion to Dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6). (Doc. 25). Therefore, Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion (Doc. 20) need not be addressed3 and is DENIED as moot.

2 Therefore, Defendants’ arguments about how Plaintiff erroneously sued Prosight, because it is no longer a cognizable entity, in their respective Motions (Doc. 20; Doc. 25) no longer apply and are moot and not considered by the Court.

3 In doing so, the Court finds that it does not need to consider other arguments made in relation to that Motion (Doc. 20), such as whether Defendant Southwest Marine has standing to submit a motion on behalf of Defendant Coaction Global or whether Defendant Coaction Global is entitled to join Southwest Marine’s motion. II. Defendants’ Motion to Join Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion (Doc. 20) to Dismiss Coaction Global and Prosight from the lawsuit (Doc. 25)

Defendants’ instant Motion (Doc. 25) essentially makes two requests: (1) to join Defendant Southwest Marine’s Motion (Doc. 20) to Dismiss Coaction Global and Prosight as parties in this lawsuit, or/and (2) in the alternative, dismiss Plaintiff’s claims pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim as to Coaction Global only. The Court will first address Defendants’ request to drop Coaction Global from the lawsuit. Defendant Coaction Global contends that it should be dropped as a party because Plaintiff cannot maintain a cause of action against it for its subsidiary Defendant Southwest Marine’s alleged misconduct. (Doc. 25-1, at 7). It further contends that it has no interest in the litigation, other than being the ultimate parent company of Defendant Southwest Marine. (Id.) Defendant Coaction Global asserts that it is not an indispensable party and thus should be dismissed from this action. (Id. at 8). Plaintiff contends that Defendant Coaction Global’s request to drop itself as a party pursuant to Rule 21 should be denied because Defendant Coaction Global is an indispensable party to this action and thus should not be dismissed to the prejudice of Plaintiff (Doc. 28, at 11–12). Plaintiff also argues that Rule 21 is used to preserve a federal court’s diversity jurisdiction by dropping a dispensable party or to cure defects in joinder, which is “not present here.” (Id.) Plaintiff further argues that Defendants in this action were sued and served as original Defendants rather than having been subsequently joined into a pre-existing lawsuit. (Id. at 12).

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Bluebook (online)
SOUTHERN PINE CREDIT UNION v. COACTION GLOBAL, INC., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-pine-credit-union-v-coaction-global-inc-gamd-2023.