S. THOMAS ANDERSON, District Judge.
Before the Court is Plaintiff Donyael Henry' Motion for Leave to Amend Complaint (ECF No. 32) filed on January 21, 2016. Defendants Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and Memphis International Airport Police Department ("the airport Defendants") and Defendant Lt. Kendrick Jones have filed separate responses in opposition to Plaintiff's Motion (ECF Nos. 34, 36). For the reasons set forth below, Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend is
On February 11, 2015, Plaintiff filed his initial complaint against Defendants in the Circuit Court for Shelby County, Tennessee for the Thirtieth Judicial District at Memphis. The Complaint asserted causes of action under Tennessee law for false imprisonment, abuse of process, malicious prosecution, and the intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Plaintiff demanded an award of damages in the amount of $250,000.00. Plaintiff's opening pleadings alleged for jurisdictional purposes that he was a resident of Mississippi and that Defendants were residents of Tennessee. Defendants were served with the initial complaint and on April 10, 2015, filed a joint motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, or in the alternative a motion for summary judgment. Among other things, Defendants argued that they were cloaked with immunity from Plaintiff's claims sounding in tort pursuant to the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act ("TGTLA").
Plaintiff responded in opposition to Defendants' motion to dismiss TGTLA immunity arguments by filing his First Amended Complaint on August 27, 2015. Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint added alternative claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Specifically, the First Amended Complaint alleged that if Defendants were deemed state actors for purposes of the TGTLA, then Defendants had acted under color of law to deprive Plaintiff of his constitutional rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Based on Plaintiff's new claims for relief under federal law, Defendants filed a Notice of Removal on September 28, 2015. Upon removal, Plaintiff requested a remand of the case for Defendants' failure to follow the procedural requirements of the removal statute. The Court disagreed holding that Plaintiff's initial pleading was not removable under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b)(2) and that Defendants' removal of the First Amended Complaint was timely.
On December 28, 2015, the airport Defendants filed a Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint, including Plaintiff's § 1983 claims. Plaintiff responded in opposition to Defendants' Motion and renewed his motion to remand the case to state court. In conjunction with his opposition to the Motion to Dismiss, Plaintiff also filed a Motion for Leave to Amend his Complaint and proposed what would be his Second Amended Complaint.
Defendants have responded in partial opposition to the Motion for Leave to Amend. Neither the airport Defendants nor Lt. Jones opposes the filing of an amended complaint. All Defendants, however, request that the Court grant the motion to amend with prejudice as to the § 1983 claims so as to preclude Plaintiff from refiling the § 1983 claims at a later time. Defendants argue that Plaintiff amended his complaint once already to add the § 1983 claims and that allowing him to amend again and drop the § 1983 claims is simply Plaintiff's attempt to get his case back to state court. The dismissal of the § 1983 claims without prejudice leaves open the possibility that Plaintiff will reassert the claims, perhaps resulting in the removal of his suit to federal court for a second time. Defendants argue that as a matter of fairness and judicial economy, the Court should only permit Plaintiff to dismiss his § 1983 claims with prejudice.
The airport Defendants add that the Court should dismiss the § 1983 claim against them for the reasons stated in their Motion to Dismiss. On February 12, 2016, Defendant Jones filed his own Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint, seeking qualified immunity as to the § 1983 claim against him.
The threshold issue presented is whether Plaintiff should be allowed to file a Second Amended Complaint, removing his civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 but without prejudice to refile the claims at a later time. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2) provides that a party may amend his pleadings only with the opposing party's written consent or the court's leave and "that leave to amend shall be freely given when justice so requires."
While Defendants argue that the Motion to Amend is in its essence a motion for voluntary dismissal under Rule 41(a), Rule 15(a) provides "the preferred method" for a plaintiff who seeks to abandon fewer than all of his claims against a defendant.
Under Rule 15(a)'s liberal standard for amending the pleadings, the Court finds good cause to grant Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend and permit him to abandon his claims for relief under § 1983. Plaintiff's proposed amendment will streamline the ultimate issues for trial, simplify the scope of discovery, and essentially return the case to its original posture, a case about common law torts under Tennessee law and Defendants' possible immunity under the TGTLA. While all of Plaintiffs' claims share a common nucleus of facts, the elements of Plaintiff's tort claims have little in common with the elements of his § 1983 claims. Furthermore, the § 1983 claims against the airport Defendants have distinct elements and are governed by wholly separate legal standards from the § 1983 claims against Lt. Jones. Should Plaintiff be denied leave to amend, Plaintiffs' § 1983 claims will remain, Defendants will incur the expense of defending against the claims, and the Court will ultimately have to decide the claims on the merits. Plaintiff's decision to drop the § 1983 claims at this juncture, early enough in the discovery phase and before the Court has decided the Motions to Dismiss, will clearly conserve the resources of the Court and the parties. All of these considerations suggest that the Court should freely grant Plaintiff leave to amend. Therefore, Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend is
Defendants argue that the elimination of the § 1983 claims without prejudice to Plaintiff's right to re-file the claims at a later time poses a risk of prejudice to Defendants and suggests a possibility of forum shopping. According to Defendants, Plaintiff's decision to amend his pleadings yet again is a tactic to get his case back to the Shelby County Circuit Court.
It is well-settled that an amended complaint supersedes the original complaint and renders the initial pleading a nullity.
Having granted Plaintiff leave to amend his pleadings and drop his § 1983 claims, only Plaintiff's claims for false imprisonment, abuse of process, malicious prosecution, and the intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress under Tennessee law remain. The final issue presented for the Court then is whether the Court should continue to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over these claims or remand them to state court. For the reasons that follow, the Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the claims.
As an initial matter, the Court has jurisdiction over these claims only by virtue of 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a), which grants district courts "supplemental jurisdiction over all other claims that are so related to claims in the action within such original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution."
Having established that the Court obtained jurisdiction over Plaintiff's Tennessee tort claims by virtue of § 1367(a), the Court must next determine whether it should continue to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the claims. "With respect to supplemental jurisdiction in particular, a federal court has subject-matter jurisdiction over specified state-law claims, which it may (or may not) choose to exercise."
Even when one of these statutory conditions applies, the district court may nevertheless exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims "if recommended by a careful consideration of factors such as judicial economy, convenience, fairness, and comity."
Because Plaintiff has been granted leave to file his Second Amended Complaint and eliminate his § 1983 claim, the Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff's remaining claims under Tennessee law. The claim that provided grounds for the removal of this action from state court, Plaintiff's civil rights claim under § 1983, no longer remains as an issue between the parties and therefore is no longer before the Court. And the fact that Plaintiff only asserts Tennessee tort claims and Defendants have asserted the TGTLA as a defense to the claims also suggests that the Court should decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction. The Sixth Circuit has concluded that "the Tennessee legislature expressed a clear preference that TGTLA claims be handled by its own state courts" and "[t]his unequivocal preference of the Tennessee legislature is an exceptional circumstance for declining jurisdiction" under § 1367(c)(4).
Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend his pleadings and file a Second Amended Complaint is