Woo v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
- Maxine Chesney
- 3:19-cv-07042
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Woo v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Judge Chesney denied as moot Honda’s motion to dismiss the initial complaint and vacated the hearing.
The plaintiffs and American Honda Motor Co., Inc.; the motion concerned the plaintiffs’ initial complaint.
What happened
In Woo v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint after Honda moved to dismiss their initial complaint.
The plaintiffs filed the amended complaint within 21 days after Honda served its motion, so they were allowed to amend without first obtaining the court’s permission. The amended complaint replaced the initial complaint.
Judge Maxine Chesney denied Honda’s motion to dismiss the initial complaint as moot and vacated the scheduled hearing.
The detailed version
- Woo v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc. · No. 3:19-cv-07042
- Maxine Chesney
- Feb. 27, 2020
Background
Honda moved under Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to dismiss the plaintiffs’ initial complaint. Before the court ruled on that motion, the plaintiffs filed a First Amended Complaint on February 13, 2020.
Reasoning
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(1) allows a party to amend its pleading once as a matter of course within 21 days after service of a motion under Rule 12. The court found that the plaintiffs filed their amended complaint within that period and therefore were entitled to amend without court permission. An amended pleading replaces the original pleading, which is then treated as no longer operative.
Ruling
The court denied as moot Honda’s motion to dismiss the initial complaint and vacated the hearing scheduled for March 6, 2020. The court did not decide the merits of the claims or the arguments raised in the motion to dismiss.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.