(PC) Villery v. Crounse ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 JARED M. VILLERY, Case No. 1:18-cv-01623-NONE-SKO (PC) 12 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S 13 v. MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT 14 D. CROUNSE, et al., (Doc. 41) 15 Defendants. 16 17 On August 10, 2020, Plaintiff filed a motion for leave to file a first amended complaint, 18 pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15 and Local Rule 220. (Doc. 41.) Plaintiff seeks to 19 add two defendants and one cause of action. (Id. at 1-2.) Defendants have not filed an opposition 20 or a statement of non-opposition to Plaintiff’s motion, and the time to do so has passed. See Local 21 Rule 230(l). 22 Leave to amend a pleading “is entrusted to the sound discretion of the trial court,” 23 Pisciotta v. Teledyne Indus., Inc., 91 F.3d 1326, 1331 (9th Cir. 1996), and “[t]he court should 24 freely give leave when justice so requires,” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2). In exercising its “discretion, 25 a court must be guided by the underlying purpose of Rule 15 to facilitate decision on the merits, 26 rather than on the pleadings or technicalities…. Accordingly, Rule 15’s policy of favoring 27 amendments to pleadings should be applied with extreme liberality.” United States v. Webb, 655 1 Upon review of Plaintiff’s motion, including the proposed first amended complaint 2 attached thereto, the Court finds good cause to grant the motion. Accordingly, the Court 3 ORDERS: 4 1. Plaintiff’s motion for leave to file a first amended complaint (Doc. 41) is 5 GRANTED; 6 2. Plaintiff shall file his first amended complaint within 21 days of the date of 7 service of this order; and 8 3. The Court will issue an order directing service on any newly-added defendants, as 9 appropriate. The currently-named defendants need not file a responsive pleading to 10 the first amended complaint until the date on which the added defendants are 11 ordered to do so in the order directing service. 12 IT IS SO ORDERED. 13 Sheila K. Oberto 14 Dated: October 23, 2020 /s/ . UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27