FERNANDO J. GAITAN, Jr., District Judge.
Pending before the Court are (1) Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Doc. No. 38); and (2) Defendants' Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. No. 52). Both are considered below.
On April 26, 2013, plaintiff Kenneth Monte Kent, a resident of Camden County, Missouri and Thailand, filed this action in the Circuit Court of Camden County, Missouri, arguing that his former employer(s) breached a written agreement to pay plaintiff commissions based on payments received for certain sales. Plaintiff alleges that although demand was made on or about July 24, 2004, his former employer(s) failed and refused to make any payments to plaintiff as commission on sales.
Plaintiff sued Charter Communications, LLC, Charter Communications Holding Company, Falcon Cablevision, Falcon Telecable, CC Systems, LLC, Charter Communications Entertainment I, LLC, Charter Communications Entertainment I, L.P., Charter Communications Inc., Enstar Cable Corporation, Enstar Communications Corporation, Falcon Cable Communications, 212 Seventh Street, Charter Communications VII, LLC, and Interlink Communications Partners, LLC.
On July 17, 2013, defendants filed a motion to dismiss (Doc. No. 10), arguing that plaintiff's petition failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. On August 5, 2013, plaintiff filed both a response to defendants' motion to dismiss (Doc. No. 15) and a request for leave to file a first amended complaint (Doc. No. 14). Defendants responded with a renewed motion to dismiss plaintiff's first amended complaint (Doc. No. 17). Defendants reiterated their belief that a five-year, rather than ten-year, statute of limitations should apply. Defendants further argued that plaintiff still had not identified which of the defendants was his employer. On November 8, 2013, plaintiff filed a motion for leave to file second amended complaint (Doc. No. 27). Plaintiff asserted that the second amended complaint was intended to clarify plaintiff's claims and incorporate information that was not available to plaintiff at the time of filing the first amended complaint. Defendants filed suggestions in opposition to plaintiff's motion to file second amended complaint (Doc. No. 32, filed on November 25, 2013), indicating that the amendment is futile as "[n]o amount of amendments changes the fact that Plaintiff's claim accrued nearly ten years prior to filing this lawsuit and is, therefore, barred by the applicable statute of limitations." Doc. No. 32, p. 2.
On December 26, 2013, the Court denied defendants' motion to dismiss, and granted plaintiff leave to file his second amended complaint.
On January 27, 2014, defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim (Doc. No. 38), arguing that as to defendant 212 Seventh Street, plaintiff cannot state a claim because plaintiff never had a contractual or employment relationship with defendant 212 Seventh Street. Defendants reiterate their previous arguments based on the statute of limitations, and further assert that plaintiff's claims are barred by the statute of frauds. Plaintiff responded on February 28, 2014, indicating that the statute of frauds does not bar his claims, the ten-year statute of limitations applies to this suit, and 212 Seventh Street is not fraudulently joined, as plaintiff has asserted that all fourteen named defendants are jointly doing business under the name "Charter Communications." Defendants filed reply suggestions on March 17, 2014 (Doc. No. 45).
Upon initial review of defendants' motion to dismiss, the Court noticed that defendants only moved to dismiss one of the four allegedly fraudulently joined defendants identified in their Notice of Removal. In particular, in their Notice of Removal (Doc. No. 1), defendants argued that Charter Communications Entertainment I, L.P., Enstar Communication, Inc., and Enstar Cable Corporation were fraudulently joined. Defendants provided no citizenship information regarding those three defendants in their notice of removal.
On May 5, 2014, defendants filed their response to the Court's order, indicating (1) Charter Communications Entertainment I, L.P. was dissolved in 1999, and was a Delaware citizen for diversity purposes; (2) Enstar Cable Corporation was incorporated in the state of Georgia and had a principal place of business in Missouri; however, it merged with Enstar Communications Corporation in 2006 and ceased having a separate corporate existence; and (3) Enstar Communications Corporation was incorporated in the state of Georgia and had a principal place of business in Missouri; however, it was dissolved on December 8, 2010. Plaintiff filed a response (Doc. No. 56), indicating that defendant 212 Seventh Street is a Missouri corporation and a joint venture with all of the other defendants, and any doubt about whether plaintiff could state a claim against 212 Seventh Street should be resolved in discovery.
When ruling on a defendant=s motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), a judge must accept as true all of the factual allegations in the complaint.
In cases that have been removed from state court to federal court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a), fraudulent joinder provides an exception to the general rule that the presence of a forum defendant or non-diverse defendant destroys diversity jurisdiction. "Fraudulent joinder occurs when a plaintiff files a frivolous or illegitimate claim against a non-diverse defendant solely to prevent removal."
Upon consideration of defendants' motion to dismiss, the Court finds that defendants have not demonstrated that defendant 212 Seventh Street has been fraudulently joined. Defendants first argue that defendant 212 Seventh Street must be dismissed because 212 Seventh Street was never plaintiff's employer and never entered into a contractual agreement with plaintiff as an employee. To demonstrate this fact, however, defendants point to a declaration from Kimberly Glazebrook stating that plaintiff was not employed by 212 Seventh Street. Although defendants suggest the Court should analyze the issue of defendant 212 Seventh Street's alleged fraudulent joinder under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) as a factual challenge to subject matter jurisdiction so that the Court could consider facts outside the pleadings (
Further, defendants note that the United States previously obtained a judgment against plaintiff (
Defendants continue to argue that the claims against them (and against 212 Seventh Street, in particular) are barred by the statute of limitations. However, for the reasons stated in the Court's previous order (Doc. No. 33, pp. 5-6), taking the well-pled allegations of the complaint as true, the Court cannot find that plaintiff's claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. As discussed previously, this issue would be better raised on summary judgment.
Finally, defendants argue that the plaintiff's claims are barred by the statute of frauds. As noted by plaintiff, full performance by one party of a contract will take a contract outside the ambit of the statute of frauds, R.S.Mo. § 432.010.
Accordingly, defendants' motion to dismiss (Doc. No. 38) is
Accordingly, for the above stated reasons, it is
1) Defendants' motion to dismiss (Doc. No. 38) is
2) This case is
3) Defendants' Motion for Reconsideration (Doc. No. 52) is
4) The Clerk of the Court is directed to mail a certified copy of this Order to the Clerk of the State Court.