Opinion
2:20-cv-01554-KJM-DB
07-20-2021
Quiana Lei Porter, Plaintiff, v. Yuba City Police Dept., et al., Defendants.
ORDER
Quiana Lei Porter acting pro se filed her first complaint in August 2020, Compl., ECF No. 1, which the assigned magistrate judge dismissed for failure to state a claim, Order, ECF No. 3. Having been granted leave to amend, Porter filed the First Amended Complaint in February 2021, First Am. Compl., ECF No. 7. Defendants have not answered, and the matter has not been scheduled. Porter now moves for leave to file a Second Amended Complaint. Mot., ECF No. 15. Porter and her new counsel, Substitution of Counsel, ECF No. 6, having reviewed the relevant evidence, seek to correct “certain facts . . . in the operative complaint to make a clear record of the events that had actually transpired.” Mot. at 1. They also seek to add the appropriate names of some defendants. Id. The motion is unopposed and submitted. Min. Order, ECF No. 17.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2) states “[t]he court should freely give leave [to amend] when justice so requires” and the Ninth Circuit has “stressed Rule 15's policy of favoring amendments.” Ascon Properties, Inc. v. Mobil Oil Co., 866 F.2d 1149, 1160 (9th Cir. 1989). However, courts may decline to grant leave to amend only if there is strong evidence of ‘undue delay, bad faith or dilatory motive on the part of the movant, repeated failure to cure deficiencies by amendments previously allowed, undue prejudice to the opposing party by virtue of allowance of the amendment, [or] futility of amendment, etc.'” See Sonoma Cty. Ass'n of Retired Emps. v. Sonoma Cty., 708 F.3d 1109, 1117 (9th Cir. 201 3) (quoting Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182 (1962)). Given the early stage of this case and the fact defendants have not yet appeared, the court does not find there is any undue prejudice or undue delay. Furthermore, there is no evidence of any other factors that would persuade the court decline to grant leave to amend.
Accordingly, the court grants the motion. Plaintiff shall have 21 days to file a Second Amended Complaint.
This order resolves ECF No. 15.
IT IS SO ORDERED.