Gordon v. Impulse Marketing Group Inc

Filing 350

MEMORANDUM in Opposition re 313 First MOTION to Amend/Correct 1 Complaint and Cross Motion renoting Defendant's Motion to Compel filed by Impulse Marketing Group Inc. (Ivey, Floyd)

Gordon v. Impulse Marketing Group Inc

Doc. 350

Case 2:04-cv-05125-FVS

Document 350

Filed 04/18/2006

FLOYD E. IVEY Liebler, Ivey, Connor, Berry & St. Hilaire 2 P. O. Box 6125 Kennewick, WA 99336-0125 3 5 0 9 -7 3 5 -3 5 8 1 Attorneys for Defendant 4 Impulse Marketing Group, Inc. and Third Party Plaintiff
1 5 6

Klein, Zelman, Rothermel, & Dichter, L.L.P. By: Sean Moynihan, Esq.; Peter Glantz 485 Madison Avenue 7 New York, New York 10022 Telephone Number [phone] 8 Facsimile Number [phone] Attorneys for Defendant 9 Impulse Marketing Group, Inc. and Third Party Plaintiff
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Defendant/ThirdPtyPlaintiff ResMtnAmend Complaint and Renoting of Defendant's Motion to Compel - Page 1 of 7
LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

ROBERT SIEGEL Attorney At Law Attorney for Plaintiff UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON ) ) ) Pl a i n t i f f , ) vs. ) ) IMPULSE MARKETING GROUP, ) INC., ) ) Defendant ______________________________ ) ) ) IMPULSE MARKETING GROUP, ) INC., ) ) Third-Party Plaintiff, vs. ) ) ) BONNIE GORDON, et al., ) ) Third-Party Defendants. JAMES S. GORDON, JR., No. CV-04-5125-FVS DEFENDANT AND THIRD PARTY PLAINTIFF'S MEMORANDUM RESPONSE TO PLAINTIFF'S MOTIONS TO AMEND COMPLAINT AND RENOTING OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO COMPEL FOR HEARING CONTEMPORANEOUS WITH PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO AMEND COMPLAINT MAY 1, 2006

Attorneys at Law P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336-0125 [phone]

Dockets.Justia.com

Case 2:04-cv-05125-FVS

Document 350

Filed 04/18/2006

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

INTRODUCTION Plaintiff, James Gordon ("Plaintiff"), has moved to amend his Complaint. He scheduled this motion for a return date of May 1, 2006. Plaintiff then moved to expedite his motion to a return date of April 7, 2006 by scheduling the motion to expedite without oral argument on Friday, March 31, 2006, effectively "shortserving" Defendant, Impulse Marketing Group, Inc. ("Defendant"). Defendant interposed a timely objection to Plaintiff's motion to expedite requesting the Court to deny the motion to expedite. Plaintiff's continued failure to comply with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is becoming more and more burdensome and costly for Defendant. Nevertheless, Defendant now opposes Plaintiff's motion to amend and renews Defendant's request for oral argument on the motion to amend the Complaint. TIME TO ANSWER AN AMENDED COMPLAINT Plaintiff seeks to assert new causes of action, an additional plaintiff and an individual named defendant. However, Plaintiff's amendment of his Complaint will subject Defendant to an evaluation and analysis of several entirely new causes of action including, but not limited to, new allegations drawn on Washington State Criminal Statutes and the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 ("CAN-SPAM"). Putting aside the fact that such new causes of action would be futile, the proposed addition of a new plaintiff, Omni Innovations, LLC, will require duplicative discovery and motion practice and would substantially prejudice Defendant. MOTION PRACTICE EXPECTED Should the Court grant Plaintiff leave to amend his Complaint, Defendant anticipates filing a dispositive motion to dismiss Plaintiff's new baseless causes of action. In fact, by conducting a reasonable investigation into the merits of his new allegations, as federal law mandates, Plaintiff would have understood that his new causes of action are entirely without merit.
Defendant/ThirdPtyPlaintiff ResMtnAmend Complaint and Renoting of Defendant's Motion to Compel - Page 2 of 7
LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

Attorneys at Law P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336-0125 [phone]

Case 2:04-cv-05125-FVS

Document 350

Filed 04/18/2006

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Further, Plaintiff has not demonstrated that Plaintiff can prove that any email was sent by the Defendant or that email violating any aspect of RCW 19.190 et seq. was sent with the knowledge of Defendant or that Defendant consciously avoided knowing that email violating any aspect of RCW 19.190 et seq. was transmitted. As such, in addition to a dispositive motion to dismiss Plaintiff's new causes of action should leave to amend be granted, Defendant anticipates moving for sanctions and costs against Plaintiff. CROSS-MOTION TO COMPEL What is even more troublesome than the prejudicial effect of Plaintiff seeking

11 to amend his Complaint, is the fact that Plaintiff has failed to sufficiently respond to 12 13 14

Defendant's First Set of Interrogatories and Document Requests, subjecting Defendant to unnecessary costs associated with trying to resolve discovery issues between the

15 parties short of this Court's intervention. 16 17 18 occasions in connection with discovery. In good faith, on March 3, 2006, March 14, 19 20 21

In fact, at the Court's direction, we "met and conferred" with Plaintiff on several

2006 and April 13, 2006, Defendant reiterated its views to Plaintiff regarding Plaintiff's outstanding discovery obligations. Plaintiff's continued insistence that the

22 burden to ascertain the alleged statutory violations is somehow shared equally between 23 24 25 statutory violations by the preponderance of the evidence. 26 27 28

the parties, effectively ignores the fact that Plaintiff must establish Defendant's alleged

To date, Plaintiff has failed to properly provide Defendant with sufficient discovery responses including, but not limited to, the following: (1) a document
Defendant/ThirdPtyPlaintiff ResMtnAmend Complaint and Renoting of Defendant's Motion to Compel - Page 3 of 7
LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

Attorneys at Law P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336-0125 [phone]

Case 2:04-cv-05125-FVS

Document 350

Filed 04/18/2006

1 production that is sequentially numbered/Bates Stamped, in the lower left margin, in 2 3

compliance with Local Rule 10.1 including, but not limited to, (2) answering each

4 portion of Plaintiff's "analysis" by specifically correlating, in a usable fashion, with 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 defense. Obviously, Defendant will need to know, with specificity, why Plaintiff 12 contends that each email allegedly violates the Washington statute. By sufficiently 13 14

the Bates Stamped document to which it corresponds; and (3) a complete written response to each Interrogatory1. As Defendant continues to reiterate to Plaintiff, each email represents a unique cause of action, every element of which must be proven. Each will have a distinct

responding to Defendant's discovery requests, both parties will then be in a better

15 position to determine whether any of Plaintiff's claims can simply be 16 17 18 as suggested by the Court. Moreover, at that point, providing Interrogatory responses 19 satisfactory to each party should be somewhat simpler. Plaintiff argues that somehow 20 21

withdrawn in advance and/or whether their can be any "grouping" for purpose of trial

Defendant's request for sufficient discovery responses in the above-mentioned fashion

22 constitutes "trial preparation" and is therefore "unreasonable and improper." 23 24 25 26 27 28 For example, the Responses to Interrogatories #7 and #10 must fully detail Plaintiff's contention/allegation of how each individual email, whether transmitted by Defendant or by a third party on Defendant's behalf, allegedly: a) misrepresented or obscured information identifying the point or origin of the email; b) misrepresented or obscured information identifying the transmission path of the email; and/or c) contained false or misleading information in the subject line of the email.
Defendant/ThirdPtyPlaintiff ResMtnAmend Complaint and Renoting of Defendant's Motion to Compel - Page 4 of 7
LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

However, such an argument is a bad faith attempt to protect Plaintiff from spending
1

Attorneys at Law P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336-0125 [phone]

Case 2:04-cv-05125-FVS

Document 350

Filed 04/18/2006

1 time and money in proving his case. In fact, Plaintiff's false contention is not in 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Amend, or to re-note the Motion shortly thereafter and seeks sanctions for Plaintiff's 12 continued failure to provide Defendant with sufficient discovery after Defendant's 13 14

accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Accordingly, Defendant hereby cross-moves for an order to compel Plaintiff to sufficiently respond to Defendant's discovery demands in the manner described herein, or as this Court shall require. Alternatively, Defendant proposes to re-note Defendant's original Motion to Compel for hearing contemporaneous with the hearing of Plaintiff's Motion to

repeated attempts to resolve these discovery issues short of this Court's intervention.

15 Defendant is prejudiced by Plaintiff's failure to respond to Defendant's Discovery. 16 17 18

NEWLY REVEALED PROPOSED PLAINTIFF Plaintiff intends to name Omni Innovations, LLC as an additional plaintiff.

19 While Defendant is unaware of this entity, permitting such a new plaintiff to enter this 20 21

case, at this juncture of the litigation, would require Defendant to duplicate its recent

22 case work in addressing this entity as a new plaintiff. Defendant believes that naming 23 24 25

Omni Innovations LLC is substantially prejudicial to the Defendant and urges the Court to deny Plaintiff's Motion relative to adding an additional Plaintiff.

26 RESCHEDULING 27 28
Defendant/ThirdPtyPlaintiff ResMtnAmend Complaint and Renoting of Defendant's Motion to Compel - Page 5 of 7
LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

Should the Court grant Plaintiff's motion to amend his Complaint, this case

Attorneys at Law P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336-0125 [phone]

Case 2:04-cv-05125-FVS

Document 350

Filed 04/18/2006

1 should be rescheduled given that Defendant will require reasonable time to analyze, 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

evaluate and respond to Plaintiff's Amended Complaint.

DATED this 18th day of April, 2006. LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

By s/ FLOYD E. IVEY FLOYD E. IVEY, WSBA#6888 Attorneys for Defendant 1141 N. Edison, Suite C P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336 Local Counsel for Defendant Impulse Marketing Group, Inc.

S/ SEAN MOYNIHAN & PETER J. GLANTZ Sean A. Moynihan & Peter J. Glantz Klein, Zelman, Rothermel & Dichter, LLP 485 Madison Avenue, 15th Floor New York, New York 10022 [phone] [phone] (fax)

I hereby certify that on April 18, 2006, I electronically filed DEFENDANT'S OBJECTION TO PLAINTIFF'S MOTION TO AMEND COMPLAINT AND 26 RENOTING OF DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO COMPEL with the Clerk of the 27 Court using the CM/ECF System which will send notification of such filing to Robert Siegel, Peter J. Glantz and Sean A. Moynihan. I hereby certify that I have
25 28
Defendant/ThirdPtyPlaintiff ResMtnAmend Complaint and Renoting of Defendant's Motion to Compel - Page 6 of 7
LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

Attorneys at Law P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336-0125 [phone]

Case 2:04-cv-05125-FVS

Document 350

Filed 04/18/2006

1 served the foregoing to the following non-CM/ECF participants by other means: 2 Bonnie Gordon, Jonathan Gordon, James S. Gordon, III, Robert Pritchett, Jamila 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Defendant/ThirdPtyPlaintiff ResMtnAmend Complaint and Renoting of Defendant's Motion to Compel - Page 7 of 7
LIEBLER, IVEY, CONNOR, BERRY & ST. HILAIRE

Gordon and Emily Abbey. S/ FLOYD E. IVEY FLOYD E. IVEY

Attorneys at Law P.O. Box 6125 Kennewick, Washington 99336-0125 [phone]