Timothy Rister v. Yadkin Bank

714 F. App'x 170
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedNovember 15, 2017
Docket16-3739
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 714 F. App'x 170 (Timothy Rister v. Yadkin Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Timothy Rister v. Yadkin Bank, 714 F. App'x 170 (3d Cir. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION *

PER CURIAM

Timothy Rister appeals pro se from the dismissal of his amended complaint. For the reasons discussed below, we will affirm the District Court’s judgment.

Rister is the guarantor on a defaulted Small Business Administration (“SBA”) loan with appellee Yadkin Bank. After the bank sent Rister a letter demanding payment on that SBA loan, Rister filed a pro se complaint in the District Court alleging various tort and contract claims. Yadkin Bank filed a motion to dismiss. After further briefing, some settlement discussions, and additional motion practice, the District Court dismissed all but one count of the complaint with prejudice, on the ground that those counts failed to state claims upon which relief could be granted and because further amendment of those counts would be futile. Count Four, the lone count that the District Court dismissed without prejudice, alleged that Yadkin Bank had failed to define and quantify a “commitment fee” in the documents it disclosed to Rister to secure his guarantee on the loan. The District Court granted Rister leave to file an amended complaint setting out that Count Four in more detail since it could not find a reference to a “commitment fee” or its meaning in the complaint or attached exhibits.

Rister then filed an amended complaint that focused almost entirely on other counts that had already been dismissed, rather than simply adding facts to support and clarify the allegations about the “commitment fee.” Two main points appeared in the amended complaint. First, it alleged that tfye terms “packaging fee” and “SBA fee” in the commitment letter that Rister received were vague apd ambiguous..Second, it sought to resurrect allegations from the original complaint about a $36,000 credit for a landlord construction contribution that Risteil said should have been applied to the loan balance. As a result of the failure to apply that credit, Rister contended, Yadkin Bank had purportedly failed to disclose that it had “increased” the loan amount.

Yadkin Bank moved to dismiss that amended complaint as well. Rister thereafter untimely sought reconsideration of the District Court’s first dismissal order, and filed additional motions that are not at issue here. In that motion for reconsideration, Rister argued that the District Court should have granted him leave to amend counts in the original complaint that the District Court had dismissed with prejudice, not just Count Four. The District Court then granted the motion to dismiss the amended complaint, denied the request to reconsider its initial dismissal order, and denied Rister’s other requests for relief. This, appeal followed. 1

On appeal, Rister contends that the District Court should have provided him what he calls additional accommodations because he is regarded as disabled, such as including allegations in Rister’s response to the motion to dismiss as part of his complaint, and giving Rister an additional opportunity to re-plead certain counts in his complaint. In particular, Rister argues that the Distinct Court should have allowed him to re-plead Counts Two, Seven, and Ten in the original complaint, which Rister now says all relate to the idea that Yadkin Bank allegedly increased the amount due on the loan without notice required under its agreement with him.

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and exercise plenary review over a dismissal pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Howard Hess Dental Labs. Inc. v. Dentsply Int’l, Inc., 602 F.3d 237, 246 (3d Cir. 2010). When considering a motion to dismiss, we construe a pro se plaintiffs pleadings liberally. Dluhos v. Strasberg, 321 F.3d 365, 369 (3d Cir. 2003). The Court may consider the allegations in the complaint and exhibits explicitly relied upon in the complaint. In re Burlington Coat Factory Sec. Litig., 114 F.3d 1410, 1426 (3d Cir. 1997). “[I]n deciding a motion to dismiss, all well-pleaded allegations ... must be taken as true and interpreted in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, and all inferences must be drawn in favor of them.” McTernan v. City of York, 577 F.3d 521, 526 (3d Cir. 2009) (quotation marks omitted). To withstand a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, a complaint “must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1965, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

We review the denial of leave to. amend the complaint for an abuse of discretion. See Grayson v. Mayview State Hosp., 293 F.3d 103, 108 (3d Cir. 2002). A District Court may dismiss a complaint without leave to amend on “grounds of bad faith, undue delay, prejudice, or futility.” Alston v. Parker, 363 F.3d 229, 236 (3d Cir. 2004).

We also review a District Court’s order denying a motion for reconsideration for an abuse of discretion. Max’s Seafood Café ex rel. Lou-Ann, Inc. v. Quinteros, 176 F.3d 669, 673 (3d Cir. 1999). “The scope of a motion for reconsideration ... is extremely limited[,]” and should “be used only to correct manifest errors of law or fact or to present newly discovered evidence.” Blystone v. Horn, 664 F.3d 397, 415 (3d Cir. 2011).

Rister’s first point on appeal has some merit, although not for the reasons that Rister offers. When the District Court assessed whether to reconsider its order dismissing all but Count Four in Rister’s original complaint with prejudice, it rejected the premise that Rister’s assertion of disability required it to look beyond Ris-ter’s complaint and exhibits, and to also consider the allegations in Rister’s response to the motion to- dismiss. As part of the effort to construe a pro se litigant’s pleadings liberally, however, we have held that it may be proper to consider certain material outside a pro se litigant’s complaint and exhibits when ruling on a motion to dismiss. See Mack v. Warden Loretto FCI, 839 F.3d 286, 291 n.2 (3d Cir. 2016) (“[W]e will also consider his allegations made in response to the defendants’ motion to dismiss, which incorporate and are consistent with the allegations in his complaint.”).

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

Related

BYRD v. INVENTIV HEALTH
D. New Jersey, 2024

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
714 F. App'x 170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/timothy-rister-v-yadkin-bank-ca3-2017.