Opinion
21-1034-KHV-GEB
12-12-2022
RONALD G. CHRONISTER and CHRISTINA CHRONISTER Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF DERBY, KANSAS, Defendant.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
KATHRYN H. VRATIL UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
This matter comes before the Court on plaintiffs' Amended Motion to Dismiss (Doc. #83) filed on December 6, 2022. Defendant filed a Response on December 7, 2022 (Doc. #84). In the Amended Motion to Dismiss, plaintiffs move the Court for a dismissal of the federal takings claim with prejudice and a dismissal of the state law claims without prejudice but subject to the following conditions, which were outlined in the Court's previous Memorandum and Order (Doc. #78): (1) plaintiffs pay all court costs incurred in this litigation; (2) in any future lawsuit in either state or federal court, all discovery conducted in this case will be applicable and available to both parties; and (3) plaintiffs pay all attorneys' fees and expenses which defendant has incurred to date in this lawsuit.
The Court conducted a status conference in this matter on December 9, 2022. During that conference, counsel for plaintiffs notified the Court that he believed the Court's third condition required plaintiffs to pay defendant's attorney's fees and expenses only if plaintiffs filed any future lawsuit in state or federal court and, as a result, notified the Court that he objected to that condition of dismissal. Thereafter, the Court instructed the parties to discuss the matter further to see if the parties could reach agreement on the terms of plaintiffs' proposed dismissal.
The parties have now submitted a proposed dismissal to the Court, which this Court approves, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(2). Accordingly, the Court dismisses the plaintiffs' federal takings claim with prejudice and declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiffs' state law claims and dismisses plaintiffs' state law claims without prejudice subject to the following conditions: (1) plaintiffs pay the defendant's costs incurred in this lawsuit which total $1,222.33; (2) in any future lawsuit in either state or federal court, all discovery conducted in this case will be applicable and available to both parties and no further discovery will be permitted; and (3) before filing any future lawsuit in either state or federal court, plaintiffs agree to pay defendant's attorney's fees and expenses incurred in this lawsuit, which are approximately $125,000.00 to date. The Court will retain jurisdiction over the limited issue of attorney's fees and expenses arising from this lawsuit. See Reynard v. Washburn University of Topeka, No. 5:19-cv-04012-HLT-TJJ, 2021 WL 5161763, at *3 (D. Kan. Nov. 5, 2021).
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that this case is dismissed pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(2) subject to the foregoing conditions.