Zirkin v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

Opinion

1 RILEY A. CLAYTON Nevada Bar No. 005260 2 rclayton@lawhjc.com 3 HALL JAFFE &CLAYTON, LLP 7425 Peak Drive 4 Las Vegas, Nevada 89128 (702)316-4111 5 Fax (702) 316-4114 6 Attorneys for Defendant, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 9 THOMAS ZIRKIN,individually, Case No. 2:22-cv-01627-JCM-DJA 10 Plaintiff, STIPULATION AND ORDER TO DENY 11 vs. USAA GIC’S MOTION TO DISMISS (Doc. 5) AND STATE FARM’S 12 STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE JOINDER (Doc. 9) AS MOOT INSURANCE COMPANY, an Illinois 13 Corporation; and USAA GENERAL INDEMNITY COMPANY; a Texas 14 Corporation, 15 Defendants. 16 This Stipulation and Order to Deny USAA GIC’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff’s Second 17 Cause of Action and State Farm’s Joinder as Moot (hereinafter “Stipulation”) is entered into by 18 Plaintiff, Thomas Zirkin (“Plaintiff”), and Defendant, USAA General Indemnity Company 19 (“USAA GIC”), and Defendant, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (“State 20 Farm”) (collectively referred to as the “Parties”). 21 On September 30, 2022, Defendant USAA GIC filed its Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff’s 22 Second Cause of Action and Motion to Strike Plaintiff’s Request for Attorney’s Fees (Doc. 5). 23 The Motion requested the Court dismiss Plaintiff’s tortious breach of the covenant of good faith 24 and fair dealing (“bad faith”) cause of action and strike Plaintiff’s request for attorney’s fees. 25 On October 10, 2022, Defendant State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company 26 filed a Joinder to USAA GIC’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff’s Second Cause of Action and 27 Motion to Strike Plaintiff’s Request for Attorney’s Fees (Doc. No. 9). 1 On October 17, 2022, Plaintiff Zirkin filed his Response to Defendant USAA GIC’s 2 Motion to Dismiss/Strike Attorneys Fees (Doc. 15). Plaintiff stated, in essence, that he would 3 be filing an amended complaint, which eliminated the second cause of action for bad faith, 4 thereby rendering the Motion/Joinder moot. Also on October 17, 2022, Plaintiff filed his First 5 Amended Complaint (Doc. 14). The First Amended Complaint removed Plaintiff’s second 6 cause of action for bad faith, making the action solely a UIM breach of contract case. The First 7 Amended Complaint, therefore, renders the Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 5) and the Joinder to the 8 Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 9) moot. See e.g., Barnes v. District of Columbia, 42 F. Supp. 3d 111, 9 117 (D.D.C. 2014)(“[w]hen a plaintiff files an amended complaint as a right . . . the amended complaint becomes the operative pleading . . .any pending motion to dismiss becomes moot.”) 10 11 / / / 12 13 14 15 / / / 16 17 18 / / / 19 20 21 / / / 22 23 24 / / / 25 26 27 / / / 1 Accordingly, the parties stipulate that the Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 5)/Joinder (Doc. 9) 2 should be denied as “moot.” 3 IT IS SO STIPULATED. 4 Dated October 21, 2022 Dated October 21, 2022 HALL JAFFE & CLAYTON, LLP THE MEDRALA LAW FIRM, PROF. LLC 6 /s/ Riley A. Clayton /s/ Jakub P. Medrala 7 RILEY A. CLAYTON JAKUB P. MEDRALA 8 ||| Nevada Bar No. 005260 Nevada Bar No. 12822 7425 Peak Drive 615 S. 6" Street 9 ||| Las Vegas, Nevada 89128 Las Vegas, NV 89101 Attorneys for Defendant, State Farm Mutual | Attorneys for Plaintiff 10 ||| Automobile Insurance Compan 11 ||| Dated October 21, 2022 12 ||| SPENCER FANE LLP 13 ||| 4s/Mary E. Bacon 14 ||| MARY E. BACON Nevada Bar No. 12686 15 ||| 300 S. Fourth Street, Suite 950 Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 16 ||| Attorneys for Defendant, USAA General Indemnity Compan 17 18 ORDER 19 IT ISSO ORDERED. 20 Dated: October 27, 2022 21 22 73 Piddid ©. “Callan UNITE) STATES DISTRICT COURT JUDGE 24 25 26 27 28