ORDER DENYING MOTION TO DISMISS AND ORDER REQUIRING DEFENDANT TO ANSWER COMPLAINT

FEDERICO A. MORENO, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE came before the Court upon Defendant John Henry Kiernan's Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative Motion to Stay the Litigation (D.E. 5), filed on September 13, 2019.

THE COURT has considered the Motion to Dismiss, the Response in Opposition, the pertinent portions of the record, and is otherwise fully advised in the premises. In his Motion to Dismiss, the Defendant notes that the Plaintiff filed an original complaint in the Circuit Court of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida, which asserts the same causes of action arising out of the same incident as those filed in the Complaint in this case. (See D.E. 5 at 1 (citing Rodriguez v. Kiernan, Case No. CACE 2018028341 (Fla. Cir. Ct., filed Dec. 10, 2018).) In light of the two overlapping complaints, the Defendant argues this case should be dismissed (or alternatively stayed) on grounds that this Court lacks jurisdiction, because the Plaintiff cannot strip the state Circuit Court's jurisdiction in the first instance over this matter by subsequently filing the same complaint in federal court. Id. at 2-3. The Plaintiff's Response in Opposition argues the Defendant's Motion should be denied because the Circuit Court case was voluntarily dismissed. (See D.E. 6 at 1-3.) The Plaintiff attached to his Response the Notice of Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice that was filed in the Circuit Court case. (See D.E. 6-1.) As such, in light of the Circuit Court case being voluntarily dismissed, it is

ADJUDGED that the Defendant's Motion to Dismiss is DENIED. It is further

ADJUDGED that the Defendant answer the Complaint no later than October 18, 2019.

DONE AND ORDERED.