Opinion ID: 184981
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The District Court's Treatment of Mr. Richardson's Re-ply to the Motion to Dismiss

Text: 13 On the record at hand, we hold that the District Court abused its discretion in failing to consider Mr. Richardson's complaint in light of his reply to the motion to dismiss. See Any anwutaku v. Moore, 151 F.3d 1053, 1059 (D.C. Cir. 1998).There are four factors that inform our holding that the District Court erred in refusing to consider Mr. Richardson's reply to constitute an amendment to his original complaint. 14 First, Mr. Richardson proceeded pro se before the District Court. Courts must construe pro se filings liberally. See, e.g., Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21 (1972) (per curiam) (holding allegations contained in a prisoner's pro se complaint to less stringent standards than pleadings written by counsel in reversing a dismissal for failure to state a claim). This point was recently emphasized in Anyanwutaku, in which the District Court had dismissed a pro se complaint sua sponte. See 151 F.3d at 1054. The plaintiff had initially filed a confusing complaint that the District Court dismissed the same day it was filed. See id. After the dismissal, the plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration and, subsequently, an  'addendum'  to the motion. See id. The District Court denied the motion for reconsideration. See id. at 1055. This court reversed, reading all of the plaintiff's filings together to conclude that the District Court abused its discretion by denying the motion for reconsideration of its dismissal of one of the plaintiff's claims. See id. at 1058-59.While Anyanwutaku involved the construction of a complaint rather than amendment, here we similarly find that the District Court should have read all of Mr. Richardson's filings together before dismissing this case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. See id. at 1059 ([W]e think the district court should have permitted his claim, drafted pro se and based on legitimate factual allegations, to proceed.); see also Pearson v. Gatto, 933 F.2d 521, 527 (7th Cir. 1991) (applying Haines to hold that the District Court should have construed a pro se plaintiff's letter to judge to be an amended complaint); Cooper v. Sheriff, Lubbock County, Texas, 929 F.2d 1078, 1081 (5th Cir. 1991) (finding, in an appeal of a Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) dismissal, that the magistrate judge should have considered a pro se litigant's reply to the defendant's answer as a motion to amend the complaint). 15 The second consideration guiding our decision is that, at the time Mr. Richardson tendered his reply to the defendant's motion to dismiss, he could have amended his claim as of right because the defendant had filed no responsive pleading and Mr. Richardson had never before sought amendment. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a) (granting leave to amend once as a matter of course at any time before a responsive pleading is served); Harris v. Secretary, United States Dep't of Veterans Affairs, 126 F.3d 339, 344-45 (D.C. Cir. 1997) (recognizing that amendments prior to a responsive pleading shall be freely given under Rule 15(a)). Moreover, courts freely grant pro se litigants leave to amend. See Moore v. Agency for Int'l Dev., 994 F.2d 874, 877 (D.C. Cir. 1993). Leave to amend a complaint should be freely given in the absence of undue delay, bad faith, undue prejudice to the opposing party, repeated failure to cure deficiencies, or futility. See Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178, 182 (1962). 16 The third factor that informs our decision is that the District Court clearly understood that Mr. Richardson both recognized the need for and attempted to make a change to his original complaint. In response to the motion to dismiss, Mr. Richardson denied basing his claim on any military order and instead clearly reframed his claim as one sounding in products liability, arguing that his injuries were caused by the defective or negligent manufacturing of the vaccine. See Resp. to Def.'s Mot. to Dismiss at 3-4, reprinted in App. 3940. The District Court recognized this, noting that Mr. Richardson's response to the motion to dismiss broadly declares that he was vaccinated with defective serum, but he does not allege how the serum was defective other than it was double the recommended dose. Mem. Op. at 4, reprinted in App. 61. Furthermore, the District Court itself acknowledged that the jurisdictional defect may simply be a matter of a pleading error. Id. at 5, reprinted in App. 62. 17 Our last consideration is the lack of any evidence of prejudice to the Government if Mr. Richardson were allowed to amend the complaint. See Moore, 994 F.2d at 877-78 (noting that a pro se litigant should be permitted to amend his complaint to meet pleading requirements prior to dismissal so long as the defendant is not prejudiced). The Government has made no argument here that it would have been prejudiced if the District Court had granted an amendment to Mr. Richardson's complaint. 18 These factors, taken together, convince this court that Mr. Richardson should be permitted to proceed with his claim. We do not suggest that a District Court must cull through every filing of a pro se litigant to preserve a defective complaint. In this case, however, where, in addition to proceeding pro se, the plaintiff retained the right to amend his complaint prior to the dismissal, the plaintiff clearly intended to add a new claim in his lawsuit, the District Court apparently understood that the plaintiff both needed to and wanted to do so, and the defendant would not have been prejudiced by such amendment, we hold that the District Court should have considered Mr. Richardson's reply to the defendant's motion to dismiss to be an amendment to his complaint. 19