Najarian Holdings LLC v. CoreVest American Finance Lender LLC

Background

The court had previously granted in part and denied in part CoreVest American Finance Lender LLC’s motion to dismiss. Among other things, it granted the motion to dismiss Najarian Holdings LLC and Najarian Capital LLC’s fifth cause of action under California’s Unfair Competition Law because the plaintiffs sought damages, which the statute does not allow. The court explained that restitution may be available, but the plaintiffs would need to identify specific money or property that CoreVest acquired from them.

The plaintiffs then filed a third amended complaint and a motion styled as a motion for clarification, or alternatively for reconsideration, of the earlier ruling. They asked whether alleging that CoreVest acquired specific money or property would be enough to correct the pleading problem, or whether they could continue pursuing the claim only if they sought restitution rather than compensatory damages.

Court’s reasoning

The court stated that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Northern District of California’s local rules do not provide for a general motion for clarification. It treated the plaintiffs’ request as essentially seeking an advisory opinion about whether their amended Unfair Competition Law claim was plausible. Because the amended complaint had already been filed and no motion challenging its sufficiency was pending, the court concluded that no present dispute required it to decide that issue.

The court said it would address the claim in due course if CoreVest challenged its plausibility.

Disposition

The court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for clarification. This order did not decide whether the third amended complaint adequately pleaded the Unfair Competition Law claim.