Opinion
7:20-cv-03662-BHH-JDA
12-09-2020
Elise Ashby Arrington, Plaintiff, v. Arthur Cooksey, AFC3 Holdings, LLC, Defendants.
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Jacquelyn D. Austin United States Magistrate Judge.
This matter is before the Court on a motion to strike the Complaint filed by Defendants and a motion to dismiss the Complaint filed by Defendant AFC3 Holdings, LLC (?AFC3”). [Docs. 11; 12.] Pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B) and Local Civil Rule 73.02(B)(2)(e), D.S.C., this magistrate judge is authorized to review all matters in pro se cases and to submit findings and recommendations to the District Court.
Defendants filed the motions at issue on October 26, 2020. [Docs. 11; 12.] On November 9, 2020, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint, and on November 13, 2020, she filed a Second Amended Complaint. [Docs. 19; 23.]
An amended pleading supersedes the original pleading. Young v. City of Mount Ranier, 238 F.3d 567, 573 (4th Cir. 2001) (“As a general rule, ‘an amended pleading ordinarily supersedes the original and renders it of no legal effect.'” (quoting Crysen/Montenay Energy Co. v. Shell Oil Co. (In re Crysen/Montenay Energy Co.), 226 F.3d 160, 162 (2d Cir. 2000))); see also 6 Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 1476 (3d ed. 2011) (“A pleading that has been amended . . . supersedes the pleading it modifies ....Once an amended pleading is interposed, the original pleading no longer performs any function in the case ....”). As a result, motions directed at the superseded pleading generally are to be denied as moot. See, e.g., Hall v. Int'l Union, United Auto., Aerospace & Agric. Implement Workers of Am., UAW, No. 3:10-cv-418-RJC-DSC, 2011 WL 4014315, at *1 (W.D. N.C. June 21, 2011) (denying as moot the defendants' motions to dismiss because the second amended complaint rendered moot the defendants' pending motions to dismiss, which were related to the superseded complaint); McCoy v. City of Columbia, No. 3:10-132-JFA-JRM, 2010 WL 3447476, at *1-2 (D.S.C. Aug. 31, 2010) (adopting the magistrate judge's report and recommendation to the extent it recommended that the motion to dismiss be found as moot because the amended complaint superseded the original complaint and rendered any attack upon it moot); Rowley v. City of N. Myrtle Beach, Nos. 4:06-1873-TLW-TER, 4:07-1636-TLW-TER, 2009 WL 750406, at *2-3 (D.S.C. Mar. 16, 2009) (finding as moot the defendants' motion to file answer out of time and the plaintiff's motion for default judgment based on the defendants' failure to timely answer the original complaint because “[t]he original complaint was, in a sense, amended out of existence.” (quoting Thomas v. Se. Pa. Transp. Auth., 1989 WL 11222, at *1 (E.D. Pa. 1989))). However, “if some of the defects raised in the original motion remain in the new pleading, the court simply may consider the motion as being addressed to the amended pleading[ because to] hold otherwise would be to exalt form over substance.” Wright et al., supra, § 1476 (emphasis added).
Here, Plaintiff has filed an Amended Complaint and then a Second Amended Complaint, and the Second Amended Complaint remedies the alleged defect that was the basis for the motion to strike. [Docs. 11; 19; 23.] AFC3, in turn, has filed a motion to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint, asserting the same argument it advanced as the basis for its motion to dismiss Plaintiff's original Complaint. [Docs. 12; 26.] Accordingly, the Court recommends finding as moot Defendants' motions to strike and AFC3's motion to dismiss [Docs. 11; 12], both of which were directed at the original Complaint, because the original Complaint was superseded by Plaintiff's Amended Complaint [Doc. 19] and then by Plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint [Doc. 23].
Wherefore, based upon the foregoing, the Court recommends that the motions to strike and to dismiss [Docs. 11; 12] be FOUND AS MOOT.
IT IS SO RECOMMENDED. Defendants had argued that the Complaint should be struck because it did not state its claims in numbered paragraphs and because it was unsigned. [Doc. 11.]