Sandoz Inc. v. Medwiz Solutions, LLC

Background

The court stated that, on January 12, 2022, it had granted in part and denied in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss Sandoz’s complaint. In that earlier ruling, the court dismissed Sandoz’s RICO claim without prejudice and allowed Sandoz to file an amended complaint by March 4, 2022. The court had also stated that, if Sandoz did not amend within the permitted time and lacked good cause, the RICO claim would be treated as dismissed with prejudice.

Sandoz informed the court that it did not intend to file an amended complaint at that time. It asked the court to continue treating the RICO claim as dismissed without prejudice while the case moved into discovery. The defendants did not respond to Sandoz’s request.

Court’s Analysis

The court explained that whether a plaintiff has good cause to amend a complaint is within the court’s discretion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41. The court cited decisions allowing amendments after discovery revealed facts relevant to a claim. It therefore granted Sandoz’s request to keep the RICO claim dismissed without prejudice as the parties proceeded into discovery.

Disposition

The court granted Sandoz’s request. Because Sandoz said it would not amend its pleading at that time, the court directed the parties to complete and file a case-management plan and scheduling order by February 21, 2022. The court noted that the parties were required to agree on a deadline for amended pleadings in that order. If Sandoz later sought to replead the RICO claim after discovery began, it could do so by the agreed deadline.