SUSAN C. BUCKLEW, District Judge.
This cause comes before the Court on Defendant Ford Motor Company's Motion to Strike Portions of Plaintiffs' Second Amended Complaint (Dkt. 88) and Plaintiffs' Response in Opposition (Dkt. 93).
Plaintiffs originally brought this action in state court, against Ford Motor Company ("Ford"), and several other Defendants for product liability and negligence.
Ford now moves to strike portions of Plaintiffs' second amended complaint.
Ford requests the Court strike paragraphs 19, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 50(b), 50(c), 51, and 52 of the Second Amended Complaint because they include allegations related to Ford vehicles other than the 2009 Ford Focus. Ford contends that such allegations are immaterial, impertinent, and/or scandalous. Plaintiffs argue that the allegations in question are relevant and material because they relate directly to "Plaintiffs' claims of existing defects and Ford's knowledge thereof . . ." (Dkt. 93 at 1). Specifically, Plaintiffs assert that at a minimum, allegations concerning earlier models of the Ford Focus are relevant because Ford's design analysis engineer testified at a deposition that the transmission in the 2009 Ford Focus contained a generally similar design to the transmissions contained in the 2001 through 2011 model years.
Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(f), the Court may strike "an insufficient defense or any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter." Id. However, "[a] motion to strike will `usually be denied unless the allegations have no possible relation to the controversy and may cause prejudice to one of the parties.'" Scelta v. Delicatessen Support Services, Inc., 57 F.Supp.2d 1327, 1347 (M.D. Fla.1999) (quoting Seibel v. Society Lease, Inc., 969 F.Supp. 713, 715 (M.D. Fla.1997)). The purpose of Rule 12(f) is to "clean up the pleadings, streamline litigation, and avoid unnecessary forays into immaterial matters." Wiand v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 938 F.Supp.2d 1238, 1250 (M.D. Fla. 2013) (citing Slone v. Judd, No. 8:09-cv-1175-T-27TGW, 2009 WL 5214984, at *1 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 29, 2009) (quotation omitted)).
The Second Amended Complaint alleges that a park-to-reverse defect in 2009 Ford Focus caused the rented vehicle to unexpectedly roll down Plaintiff McCarthy's driveway, injuring Plaintiffs M.W. and McCarthy. Plaintiffs allege that Ford had knowledge of a park-to-reverse defect in the 2009 Ford Focus and were aware of the need to design its automatic transmission to prevent such a defect. In light of the deposition testimony of Ford's design analysis engineer that the Ford Focus model years 2001 through 2011 maintained a generally similar design (Dkt. 93-2, 33:4-15), the Court finds that allegations related to other model years of the Ford Focus are relevant to the controversy herein. However, with regard to allegations concerning other Ford models and Ford's knowledge of purported defects therein, the Court finds that such allegations are not related to the controversy in the instant case and may cause prejudice to Ford. Therefore, to the extent that paragraphs 19, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 50(b), 50(c), 51, and 52 contain allegations not related to the Ford Focus, such allegations must be stricken.
Accordingly, it is