Opinion ID: 147847
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Motion to Supplement the Pleadings

Text: Nance argues that the district court abused its discretion in denying his motion to supplement the pleadings to add a retaliation claim based on Nance’s termination during the litigation because the retaliation claim would require extensive discovery and would be tantamount to starting a new case. He argues that the district court should have granted his motion because it knew that: (1) in another case, REI admitted to having a policy that preferred Asian employers; (2) he was fired “under highly suspicious circumstances . . . including the timing of the termination near the end of the discovery period;” (3) regarding one of Nance’s witnesses who had an exemplary record, REI skipped three steps of discipline and 8 instead, gave a final written warning to his witness; and (4) a federal investigator was concerned that REI was acting in retaliation. We review a plaintiff’s motion to amend his complaint for abuse of discretion. Hinson v. Clinch County, Ga. Bd. of Educ., 231 F.3d 821, 826 (11th Cir. 2000). Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(d) provides, “On motion and reasonable notice, the court may, on just terms, permit a party to serve a supplemental pleading setting out any transaction, occurrence, or event that happened after the date of the pleading to be supplemented.” A district court shall freely give leave to amend “when justice so requires.” Laurie v. Ala. Court of Criminal Appeals, 256 F.3d 1266, 1274 (11th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (quotation marks omitted). “There must be a substantial reason to deny a motion to amend,” such as “undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive on the part of the movant, . . . undue prejudice to the opposing party by virtue of allowance of the amendment, [and] futility of amendment.” Id. (alteration in original) (internal citations and quotations omitted). Here, Nance sought to supplement his pleadings by alleging retaliation from his termination that occurred over seven months after the discrimination alleged in his complaint. Although he moved to amend his complaint only two weeks after REI terminated his employment, this was also two days before the end of the 9 discovery period. The district court found that “[t]he discovery period proved almost entirely fruitless” for Nance because he failed to comply with the disclosure requirements of Rule 26(a). The district court also found that allowing Nance to amend his complaint would not support the purpose of Rule 15(d) because it “would have the effect of beginning this case anew on entirely different footing, and in effect form an entirely distinct action.” The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Nance’s motion to amend with a retaliation claim. Throughout the course of this case, Nance attempted to delay the proceedings. In addition to failing to comply with Rule 26(a)’s disclosure requirements, he filed motions to extend the discovery period and to extend the time to file a response to REI’s motion for summary judgment. When the court granted his motion to extend the discovery period, he failed to conduct any discovery. Allowing Nance to supplement his complaint would have been akin to starting a new action because his current employment discrimination claim was in summary judgment proceedings, and the discovery period was to end in two days. Moreover, the district court correctly noted that its denial of Nance’s motion would not cause him prejudice because he was not precluded from bringing a separate action based on the later conduct. See Manning v. City of Auburn, 953 F.2d 1355, 1360 (11th Cir. 1992) (holding that res judicata does not bar those 10 claims that arose after the original pleading is filed in the earlier proceeding). Upon review of the record and consideration of the parties’ briefs, we affirm. AFFIRMED. 11