Vinayagam v. US Dept Labor-Adminisrative Review Board

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedMarch 31, 2023
Docket2:18-cv-01206
StatusUnknown

This text of Vinayagam v. US Dept Labor-Adminisrative Review Board (Vinayagam v. US Dept Labor-Adminisrative Review Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vinayagam v. US Dept Labor-Adminisrative Review Board, (D. Nev. 2023).

Opinion

4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 6 * * * 7 NITHYA VINAYAGAM, Case No. 2:18-cv-01206-RFB-DJA 8 Plaintiff, 9 ORDER v. 10 US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, 11 ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW BOARD, et. al., 12 Defendants. 13

14 Before the Court for consideration is Plaintiff Nithya Vinayagam’s MOTION to Amend 15 20 Amended Complaint (ECF No. 26). 16

17 18 I. BACKGROUND 19 On July 2, 2018, Plaintiff filed a motion to proceed in forma pauperis (“IFP”), attaching 20 her Complaint against Defendants. ECF No. 1. After denying and allowing her to refile the IFP 21 motion, the Court granted the motion on July 19, 2019. ECF Nos. 3, 4, 7. In that same order, the 22 Court dismissed her first amended complaint, finding that it failed to state a claim upon which 23 24 relief could be granted. The Court granted her leave to file an amended complaint. See ECF No. 25 7. Plaintiff filed her second amended complaint on August 16, 2019. Once again, the Court 26 dismissed the complaint without prejudice for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be 27 granted. ECF No. 11. The Court’s March 23, 2020 Order noted that it was unclear, based on the 28 1 allegations, whether it could even assert subject matter and personal jurisdiction over this action. 2 Further, there appeared to be significant venue and res judicata issues. Id. As a result, the Court 3 allowed Plaintiff to file an amended complaint by April 23, 2020. Id. Plaintiff failed to comply, 4 and Magistrate Judge, Daniel J. Albregts, submitted a Report and Recommendation on April 27, 5 6 2020, recommending dismissal of this action without prejudice for failure to comply. ECF No. 12, 7 15. Without any response to the Report and Recommendation, the undersigned agreed with Judge 8 Albregts. See ECF No. 15. 9 On August 3, 2020, Plaintiff filed a motion to vacate the Court’s Judgment, following 10 dismissal of her action. ECF No. 17. She asserted that she was not able to respond to the Report 11 12 and Recommendation because the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted international mail 13 exchanges, and therefore Plaintiff requested that she be allowed to file her third amended 14 complaint. Id. The Court found this constituted a reasonable excuse and granted Plaintiff partial 15 relief from the Judgment to determine whether an amended complaint could cure the deficiencies 16 in her earlier pleadings. ECF No. 18. Plaintiff was given an opportunity to file a motion for 17 18 reconsideration with her proposed third amended complaint for the Court’s consideration. Id. 19 On May 29, 2021, Plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration and an amended complaint. 20 ECF Nos. 19, 20. On March 31, 2022, the Court evaluated Plaintiff’s third amended complaint and 21 found that it violated Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 8, 10, 18, and 20. ECF No. 25. Nevertheless, 22 the amended complaint appeared to state at least some claims which it could recognize. The Court, 23 24 however, was still unable able to discern Plaintiff’s claims and which Defendants the claims were 25 brought against. Id. Accordingly, the Court granted Plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration in part, 26 allowing Plaintiff one final opportunity to file a complaint that followed the Federal Rules of Civil 27 / / / 28 1 Procedure. Id. Plaintiff then filed the instant motion to amend the complaint, attaching the 2 proposed Fourth Amended Complaint. See ECF No. 26. 3 This Order follows. 4

5 6 II. LEGAL STANDARD 7 A complaint filed in federal court must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim 8 showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(1). Each allegation must be 9 simple, concise, and direct. Each claim must be stated in numbered paragraphs, and each numbered 10 paragraph limited as far as practicable to a single set of circumstances. Fed. R. Civ. P. 10. Pursuant 11 12 to Federal Rule if Civil Procedure 20(a)(2), Defendants may only be permissively joined in one 13 action if: “(A) any right to relief is asserted against them jointly, severally, or in the alternative 14 with respect to or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or 15 occurrences; and (B) any question of law or fact common to all defendants will arise in the action.” 16 Amendment of pleadings, if requested before the deadline to do so, is governed by Rule 15 17 18 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. AmerisourceBergen Corp. v. Dialysist West, Inc., 465 19 F.3d 946, 952 (9th Cir. 2006). Rule 15 states that courts should freely grant a party leave to amend 20 “when justice so requires.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2). Courts are to apply this policy with “extreme 21 liberality.” Owens v. Kaiser Found. Health Plan, Inc., 244 F.3d 708, 712 (9th Cir. 2001). In 22 general, leave to amend under Rule 15 should be denied only where there is a “showing of bad 23 24 faith, undue delay, futility, or undue prejudice to the opposing party”—considerations commonly 25 referred to as the Foman factors. Chudacoff v. Univ. Med. Ctr. of S. Nev., 649 F.3d 1143, 1152 26 (9th Cir. 2011); Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182 (1962). 27

28 1 III. DISCUSSION 2 As a preliminary matter, the Court does not find that granting leave to amend would cause 3 undue delay or prejudice Defendants. Defendants have yet to be served with the operative 4 complaint in this action and no dispositive motions have been filed. The Court is therefore left to 5 6 consider whether granting leave to amend would be futile. “[A] proposed amendment is futile only 7 if no set of facts can be proved under the amendment to the pleadings that would constitute a valid 8 and sufficient claim or defense.” Sweaney v. Ada County, 119 F.3d 1385, 1393 (9th Cir. 1997). 9 Courts must “liberally construe the inartful pleading of pro se litigants. It is settled that the 10 allegations of a pro se litigant’s complaint, however, “inartfully pleaded are held to less stringent 11 12 standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.” Eldridge v. Block, 832 F.2d 1132, 1137 (9th 13 Cir. 1987) (cleaned up). 14 a. General Allegations 15 Plaintiff’s proposed Fourth Amended Complaint asserts 28 causes of action stemming from 16 her 2007 recruitment by Eis Technologies’s (“Eis”) to work in Georgia through the United States’s 17 18 H-1B Visa Program. She moved from India to serve as a Senior Consultant, but alleges that, in 19 doing so, she was subjected to misrepresentations regarding her H-1B visa petition. Even though 20 she thought she would work for Eis, when she arrived in the United States her employer was 21 actually Cronous. In addition to failing to pay her certain wages, these Defendants asked her to 22 engage in fraudulent work-related conduct, which she refused to do. Eis and Cronous jeopardized 23 24 her visa status, including by misrepresenting that Cronous was shutting down,. Plaintiff alleges 25 that she then filed a wage and hour complaint in 2009 with the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) 26 – Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) in Atlanta, Georgia. The case was decided against her and 27 she appealed to the U.S.

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

Related

United States v. Puig-Infante
19 F.3d 929 (Fifth Circuit, 1994)
Foman v. Davis
371 U.S. 178 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington
442 U.S. 560 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Caterpillar Inc. v. Williams
482 U.S. 386 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Federal Deposit Insurance v. Meyer
510 U.S. 471 (Supreme Court, 1994)
Rory Walsh v. Robert Krantz
386 F. App'x 334 (Third Circuit, 2010)
Edward G. Eldridge v. Sherman Block
832 F.2d 1132 (Ninth Circuit, 1987)
Katusha Nurse v. United States
226 F.3d 996 (Ninth Circuit, 2000)
Naoko Ohno v. Yuko Yasuma
723 F.3d 984 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
Boschetto v. Hansing
539 F.3d 1011 (Ninth Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Burhoe
871 F.3d 1 (First Circuit, 2017)
Daniel Kim v. United States
940 F.3d 484 (Ninth Circuit, 2019)
Sweaney v. Ada County
119 F.3d 1385 (Ninth Circuit, 1997)
Penhallow v. Doane's Administrators
3 U.S. 54 (Supreme Court, 1795)
Willems v. Apartment Investment & Management Co.
72 F. App'x 700 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Vinayagam v. US Dept Labor-Adminisrative Review Board, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vinayagam-v-us-dept-labor-adminisrative-review-board-nvd-2023.