KAMAL V. EDEN CREAMERY, LLC, No. 21-56260 (9th Cir. 2023)
Annotate this Case
In a class action lawsuit, plaintiffs accused Eden Creamery, LLC of underfilling its pints of Halo Top ice cream. After the discovery period, the plaintiffs attempted to amend their complaint to include a new theory of liability (fraud by omission) and a new defendant (Wells Enterprises). The district court denied this motion, stating that plaintiffs failed to show good cause for amending their complaint. The plaintiffs then moved to voluntarily dismiss their claims without prejudice, which the district court also denied, instead dismissing the individual claims with prejudice and the class claims without prejudice.
On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to amend the complaint, as the plaintiffs failed to show good cause for amending after the deadline to do so had passed. However, the court found that the district court had abused its discretion by denying the plaintiffs' motion for voluntary dismissal without prejudice, as the defendants did not demonstrate that they would suffer legal prejudice if the case were dismissed without prejudice. The court held that a defendant must show legal prejudice to prevent a dismissal without prejudice. Uncertainty from unresolved disputes or inconvenience of defending another lawsuit does not constitute legal prejudice. The case was remanded with instructions to dismiss the action without prejudice, and the district court was instructed to consider whether any conditions should be imposed on the dismissal, such as an appropriate amount of costs and fees.
Court Description: Jurisdiction / Amended Complaint. The panel affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ complaint alleging that Eden Creamery, LLC underfilled its pints of ice cream.
The district court denied plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a second amended complaint in order to add a new theory of liability (fraud by omission) and a new defendant (Wells Enterprises), and their subsequent motion to voluntarily dismiss their putative class action complaint without prejudice. After denying plaintiffs’ motions, the district court dismissed plaintiffs’ individual claims with prejudice and the class claims without prejudice.
As an initial matter, the panel rejected defendants’ contention that there was no jurisdiction to review the district court’s order denying plaintiffs leave to file a second amended complaint. After the district court entered its final order of dismissal with prejudice and plaintiffs appealed, the earlier, non-final order denying plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a second amended complaint merged with the judgment and became appealable. Turning to the merits, the panel held that plaintiffs failed to show good cause, as required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b), to amend their complaint to add Wells Enterprises as a defendant and a new theory of fraud by omission. However, the district court abused its discretion by denying plaintiff’s motion to dismiss without prejudice, and instead dismissing with prejudice, because defendants failed to demonstrate that they would suffer legal prejudice if the case were dismissed without prejudice.
Accordingly, the panel remanded with instructions to dismiss the action without prejudice. Because a district court can award costs and attorney’s fees as a condition of dismissal without prejudice under Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(2), the panel directed the district court to consider whether any terms should be imposed as a condition of dismissal, such as an appropriate amount of costs and fees.
Concurring in part and dissenting in part, Judge R.
Nelson concurred in Section IV of the majority opinion (affirming the district court’s holding that plaintiffs failed to show good cause to amend their complaint) and Section V.E (holding that fees and costs may be awarded as conditions of a Rule 41 voluntary dismissal). He dissented from Sections V.A-D because he would hold that defendants have shown a proper legal interest to warrant dismissal with prejudice.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.