Opinion
Civil Action 22-50E
01-25-2023
KINGFLY SPIRITS, LLC, et al., Plaintiffs, v. BLAKE RAGGHIANTI, et al., Defendants.
ORDER
Cathy Bissoon United States District Judge
Defendant JORG GERLACH's Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 98) is DENIED AS MOOT, without prejudice to renewal at a later date, as described below.
On November 4, 2022, Plaintiffs filed a First Amended Complaint (Doc. 66). As indicated in the Clerk of Court's Notice dated January 23, 2023, Plaintiffs have failed to show that Defendants JORG GERLACH and ECHT, LLC have been served a summons attaching a copy of the Amended Complaint.
Plaintiffs' filing of an Amended Complaint renders the original Complaint a legal nullity, Palakovic v. Wetzel, 854 F.3d 209, 220 (3d Cir. 2017), and these Defendants presently owe no duty to answer or otherwise respond. Once it has been established that Defendants properly have been served a copy of the operative (i.e., most recent) complaint, Defendants may file renewed motion(s) to dismiss.
Also, the Court notes that the present Motion to Dismiss seeks dismissal of the claims against both the individual Defendant, JORG GERLACH, and the company of which he is sole proprietor, Defendant ECHT, LLC. See Doc. 98 at pg. 2. Defendant is advised that “even single-member LLCs . . . may appear in federal court only through [licensed legal] counsel.” Dougherty v. Snyder, 621 Fed.Appx. 715, 716 (3d Cir. Aug. 7, 2015) (emphasis added).
In other words, the individual Defendant cannot seek dismissal, or otherwise appear on behalf of, the LLC to present any type of defense. He may only represent himself, the individual.
Finally, in the present Motion to Dismiss, JORG GERLACH has supplied an email address (office@echt-project.com) at which he may be reached. For logistical reasons, communicating official Court information to Defendant by email (e.g., sending him copies of orders, and links for videoconferences) is preferable to sending it via regular First-Class U.S. mail. In light of Mr. Gerlach's having offered his email address in this case, it will be presumed that the service of all filings from the Court may be made on him via email. Should Defendant object to this procedure, by February 3, 2023, he must file on the docket a response showing good cause why it should not be adopted. If Defendant does not object, no filing is required. The instant Order presently will be sent to Defendant at the above email address, and by First-Class U.S. Mail. To be clear, absent a showing of good cause by February 3, 2023, future orders will NOT be sent to him by regular U.S. Mail, only by email.
IT IS SO ORDERED. 4