SECURA Insurance Company v. Deere & Company

Background

SECURA Insurance Company, as subrogee of Molitor Equipment, LLC d/b/a Molitor Brothers Farm, sued Deere & Company in two related cases. The cases were related for discovery purposes but were not consolidated for trial. The court had set deadlines for amending pleadings, and Deere filed its motions before the applicable deadline.

Motion to Amend

Deere moved for permission under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15 to file amended answers. The proposed amendments would delete Affirmative Defenses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15. The proposed answers also added the word “amended” in the caption and introductory paragraph and added the words “in manufacture and” to the list of affirmative defenses; SECURA did not object to those additions.

Deere argued that the defenses it sought to remove no longer applied after the district court dismissed SECURA’s design-defect claim. SECURA argued that allowing the amendments would affect the scope of discovery. The court explained that discovery scope was a separate issue and that no specific discovery request was before it. The court found no applicable, much less compelling, reason to deny Deere’s motions.

Ruling

Judge Becky R. Thorson granted Deere’s Motion for Leave to Amend Answer in Civ. No. 21-1199 and granted Deere’s Motion for Leave to Amend Answer in Civ. No. 21-1200. Deere may file its First Amended Answer in the form submitted to the court in each case. The order did not decide the scope of future discovery.