United States District Court, S.D. Alabama, Southern Division
CARLOS FERNANDO REIXAC MUREY, As Administrator for the Estate of Carlos Lens Fernandez, a/k/a Carlos Lens, Plaintiff,
v.
THE CITY OF CHICKASAW, AL, et al., Defendants.
ORDER
KRISTI
K. DUBOSE CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
This
matter is before the Court on Plaintiff's motion to amend
the complaint (Doc. 31), Defendants' Opposition (Doc. 36)
and Plaintiff's Reply (Doc. 38).
I.
Background
Plaintiff
initiated this action in the Circuit Court of Mobile County
on May 26, 2018, alleging Fourteenth Amendment claims and a
state law wrongful death claim (Ala. Code
§ 6-5-410) against Defendants City of Chickasaw,
Alabama, Michael E. Reynolds (former Police Chief --
Chickasaw AL), and Cynthia Robinson (Police Officer --
Chickasaw, AL) due to the May 27, 2016 actions/omissions of
Defendants while Carlos Lens (now deceased) was incarcerated
in the Chickasaw City Jail. (Doc. 2-1 at 5-17). Plaintiff
alleges four (4) counts as follows: Count I -
14thamendment violations against all individual
defendants; Count II - 14th amendment violations
against the City of Chickasaw; Count III - 14th
amendment violations against Defendant Reynolds; and Count IV
- wrongful death - state law claim, against all defendants.
(Id.)
On June
15, 2018, Defendants removed the case to this Court on the
basis of federal question subject matter jurisdiction. (Doc.
1). On July 6, 2018, Defendants filed their answer, asserting
a number of affirmative defenses. (Doc. 6). In so doing,
Defendants did not plead the affirmative defense of statute
of limitations. (Id.)
On
December 3, 2018, Plaintiff moved to amend the complaint, to
add Section 1983 claims against proposed individual
defendants Robert Wenzinger and Michael Reynolds, and the
City of Chickasaw, AL. (Doc. 31). As grounds, Plaintiff
contends that it took 28 months to obtain videos/other
evidence related to Carlos Lens' death (obtained October
1, 2018) and as such, when the complaint was filed, Plaintiff
lacked knowledge of what occurred in the Chickasaw City Jail
on May 26, 2016. (Doc. 31 at 1-2). Plaintiff "now has a
clear picture of the events" and so seeks to amend the
complaint "to fairly and accurately state what happened
in the…Jail and why Carlos Lens died in custody."
(Id. at 2). Per Plaintiff, the proposed amendments
include the following:
• Dismiss Cynthia Robinson Burt as a Defendant;
• Join Officer Robert Wenzinger as a Defendant;
• Eliminate fictitious parties;
• Add citations and detail to Jurisdiction and Venue
section;
• Delete Agency section and respondeat superior
references;
• Revise Parties section to reflect change in
Defendants;
• Add substantial detail to the Facts section;
• Change Count I from Fourteenth Amendment Violations
against all Defendants to claim against Wenzinger;
• Change Count II from Fourteenth Amendment Violations
against the City of Chickasaw to Fourteenth Amendment claims
against Chief Michael Reynolds and add additional allegations
and details;
• Change Count III from Fourteenth Amendment Violations
against Chief Michael Reynolds to Fourteenth Amendment claims
against the City of Chickasaw;
• Eliminate fictitious parties and the City of Chickasaw
from the Wrongful Death claim and revise the ...