Ningbo Relynda Import & Export, Co., LTD v. Lynn Brands LLC
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:20-cv-07987
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Ningbo Relynda v. Lynn Brands, Judge Broderick ordered defendants to say whether a pending dismissal motion should be treated as moot or evaluated against the amended complaint.
The order affected Ningbo Relynda Import & Export, Co., LTD and the defendants, including Lynn Brands LLC, by requiring the defendants to state how they wanted their pending motion to dismiss handled.
What happened
In Ningbo Relynda Import & Export, Co., LTD v. Lynn Brands LLC, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint under a federal rule allowing amendment without the court’s permission in certain circumstances. The opinion does not state the date of that filing; its text appears incomplete at that point.
Because the amended complaint was filed while defendants’ motion to dismiss was pending, the court gave defendants two options: have the existing motion treated as moot, allowing them to file a new motion under the federal rules, or ask the court to evaluate the existing motion using the amended complaint.
Judge Vernon S. Broderick ordered defendants to file a letter within seven days stating which option they chose. The order did not decide the pending motion to dismiss.
The detailed version
- Ningbo Relynda Import & Export, Co., LTD v. Lynn Brands LLC · No. 1:20-cv-07987
- Vernon Broderick
- Dec. 29, 2020
Background
The plaintiff filed an amended complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(1)(B). The opinion’s sentence identifying when the amended complaint was filed is incomplete. Defendants had already filed a motion to dismiss, and that motion was still pending.
Legal framework
The court cited a Second Circuit decision stating that when a plaintiff properly amends a complaint while a motion to dismiss is pending, the district court may either deny the pending motion as moot or evaluate the motion using the allegations in the amended complaint.
Order
The court ordered defendants to file a letter within seven days stating whether they wanted the pending motion to dismiss treated as moot, without prejudice to filing a new motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(3), or whether they wanted the court to evaluate the current motion in light of the amended complaint.
The court did not grant or deny the motion to dismiss and did not decide the merits of the claims. The order only required defendants to select how the pending motion should proceed.
Judge
The order was signed by Vernon S. Broderick, United States District Judge.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.