Wag Hotels, Inc. v. Wag Labs, Inc.
- Beth Freeman
- 5:20-cv-01326
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Wag Hotels v. Wag Labs, Judge Freeman granted Wag Labs leave to amend its answer and change the case schedule.
Wag Labs, Inc. was allowed to file a second amended answer and counterclaims, and the case schedule was changed. Wag Hotels, Inc. was the opposing party and was found unlikely to be prejudiced by the amendment.
What happened
In Wag Hotels, Inc. v. Wag Labs, Inc., Wag Labs asked to file a second amended answer and counterclaims and to change the case schedule. The motion was not opposed.
The court found good cause because Wag Labs acted promptly after learning new facts and because the schedule had problems involving expert disclosures and discovery. The court also found that Wag Hotels was unlikely to be harmed because nine months remained before fact discovery closed.
The court granted both requests, with a modified schedule, including a January 19, 2023 deadline for hearing dispositive motions and a May 22, 2023 jury-trial date. Judge Beth Labson Freeman issued the order.
The detailed version
- Wag Hotels, Inc. v. Wag Labs, Inc. · No. 5:20-cv-01326
- Beth Freeman
- Oct. 7, 2021
Background
Wag Labs moved for leave to file a second amended answer and counterclaims and to amend the scheduling order. The motion was unopposed. The requested schedule changes addressed the timing of expert disclosures, the absence of an expert-rebuttal deadline, and the lack of an expert-discovery cutoff.
Legal standard
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16, a party seeking to change a scheduling order or amend a pleading after the scheduling deadline must show good cause and obtain the judge’s consent. If good cause is shown, the amendment must also satisfy Rule 15. The court explained that the good-cause inquiry focuses primarily on the moving party’s diligence and reasons for seeking the change.
Court’s analysis
The court found good cause to change the schedule even though the parties had stipulated to an expert-disclosure deadline that came after the last day for hearing dispositive motions. The court adopted Wag Labs’ proposed schedule with one exception: it set the last day to hear dispositive motions for January 19, 2023, instead of Wag Labs’ proposed January 26, 2023 date.
The court also found that Wag Labs showed good cause to amend its answer under Rule 16. It had acted promptly after discovering later-discovered facts, and the motion was unopposed. The court further stated that Wag Hotels was unlikely to be prejudiced because nine months remained before the close of fact discovery.
Ruling and schedule
The court granted Wag Labs’ motion for leave to file a second amended answer and counterclaims. It also granted the request to amend the scheduling order, as modified. The order set or confirmed these dates: October 14, 2021, as the last day to amend pleadings; October 25, 2022, as the expert-disclosure deadline; November 22, 2022, as the expert-rebuttal deadline; December 16, 2022, as the expert-discovery cutoff; January 19, 2023, at 9:00 a.m., as the last day to hear dispositive motions; April 6, 2023, at 1:30 p.m., for the final pretrial conference; and May 22, 2023, at 9:00 a.m., for the start of jury trial. Judge Beth Labson Freeman signed the order. The opinion does not decide the underlying claims or counterclaims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.