SCOTT L. PALK, District Judge.
Before the Court is Defendant's Motion to Dismiss [Doc. No. 6].
Plaintiff alleges that she was injured in a vehicle collision which was the fault of Defendant in October 2015. See First Am. Pet. ¶¶ 9-12, Doc. No. 1-6. Plaintiff originally filed a lawsuit against Defendant in state court in October 2017, then voluntarily dismissed that suit in July 2018.
The Court first addresses Plaintiff's request for leave to amend her current pleading to replace Defendant with the special administrator of Defendant's estate. Plaintiff has not properly sought such leave. Her request is made in response to a motion, which is disallowed by Local Civil Rule 7.1(c). Nor has Plaintiff submitted her proposed amended pleading as required by Local Civil Rule 15.1. Despite having more than four months to make an appropriate Rule 15(a)(2) motion—and being on notice of her need to do so (see Reply 1, Doc. No. 8)—Plaintiff has not filed an appropriate motion. Because Plaintiff's amendment request is made in violation of multiple local civil rules, it is DENIED.
The Court therefore examines the suit as it currently stands, with Mr. Ragsdale (deceased) as Defendant. Plaintiff indicates that the Court may view the First Amended Petition as having been intended to name the special administrator of Defendant's estate as the defendant, not Defendant. See Resp. 2, Doc. No. 7.
In addition, Plaintiff cites an inapplicable state procedural rule in support of her position that additional time must be given to Plaintiff for her to correct her error (beyond that which she has already received—during which she has not filed a proper motion for leave to amend). See Fed. R. Civ. P. 81(c)(1); USA-1 Constr., Inc. v. Embree Constr. Grp., Inc., No. CIV-14-1206-D, 2015 WL 12781023, at *2 (W.D. Okla. Jan. 26, 2015). Assuming that Plaintiff intended to cite the federal analogue to Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2017(A)—i.e., Rule 17(a)(3)—it is inapplicable to this situation. See Gonsalves-Carvalhal v. Aurora Bank, FSB, No. 1-14-CV-151-SJC, 2016 WL 5376295, at *1 (N.D. Ga. Aug. 10, 2016) ("[I]t is improper for a Plaintiff to complain that she has sued the wrong party under a `real party in interest' argument."); Smith v. Janey, 664 F.Supp.2d 1, 8 n.3 (D.D.C. 2009) ("[Rule 17(a)(3)] applies only to prosecuting in the name of the real party in interest, and has nothing to do with failing to identify the appropriate defendant.").
The Court now turns to Defendant's asserted bases for dismissal—only the first of which the Court must address. Defendant argues that the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over him because he died prior to Plaintiff's initiation of this lawsuit, and that dismissal is therefore appropriate under Rule 12(b)(2). The Court agrees.
In a diversity case like this, a federal district court "may exercise personal jurisdiction over a defendant who is subject to the jurisdiction of a state court in the state where the federal court is located." Newsome v. Gallacher, 722 F.3d 1257, 1264 (10th Cir. 2013) (quotation marks omitted) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(1)(A)). The Court must therefore apply state law, by which "[t]he Oklahoma legislature has authorized Oklahoma courts to `exercise jurisdiction on any basis consistent with the [Oklahoma] Constitution. . . and the Constitution of the United States.'" Id. (quoting Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2004(F)).
"[T]he existence of personal jurisdiction is evaluated at the time the complaint was filed"—here, when Plaintiff filed her Petition [Doc. No. 1-4] in state court on July 11, 2018, more than six months after Defendant died.
The result reached herein, while seemingly harsh as to Plaintiff, is not inequitable when all circumstances are considered. First, the instant order might be different if Plaintiff had sought leave to amend her pleading via motion—as Defendant pointed out she should do more than four months ago—which she has not done. Second, Plaintiff could have served Defendant in the first lawsuit during the approximately two months after that lawsuit was filed when he was alive; Plaintiff did not do so. Plaintiff also could have discovered Defendant's death through an Internet query or other research method during the pendency of the first lawsuit and therefore sought appointment of a special administrator before she filed the second lawsuit. Or she could have done so earlier during the pendency of the second lawsuit, which existed in state court for six months before its removal to this Court. Finally, Plaintiff could have substituted Defendant with the special administrator of Defendant's estate in the First Amended Petition in this lawsuit as Plaintiff claims she intended to do—but which, for whatever reason, she did not do.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant's Motion to Dismiss [Doc. No. 6] is GRANTED as set forth herein. Plaintiff's First Amended Petition is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.
IT IS SO ORDERED.