Opinion ID: 185649
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Waiver of the Right to Amend

Text: 42 The Contractors argue that the flaws in the complaint are fatal, because Totten waived his right to amend his complaint by not seeking leave to do so pursuant to Rule 15(a). Instead, they point out, Totten merely indicated in his Opposition to defendants' motion to dismiss that he stood ready to amend his complaint if the District Court identified any pleading deficiencies. As authority for their position, the Contractors cite Government of Guam v. American President Lines, 28 F.3d 142, 149-51 (D.C.Cir.1994), in which we held that plaintiffs whose complaint had been dismissed (for lack of subject matter jurisdiction) had waived their right to amend by failing to make a Rule 15(a) motion, either before or after the District Court granted their opponent's dismissal motion. 43 The present case, however, is quite different. In President Lines, we denied plaintiffs an opportunity to amend only after upholding the trial court's decision to dismiss the complaint. In other words, that litigation was over unless we allowed the plaintiffs to reopen it, and we found that their interest in doing so did not outweigh the general rules favoring the finality of judgments and the expeditious resolution of litigation. Id. at 151. Totten's situation presents no such countervailing finality concerns, in light of our conclusion that the District Court was wrong to dismiss the complaint on the only ground it actually gave for doing so. The waiver rule relied upon in President Lines is therefore not similarly applicable where the court of appeals reverses the trial court's dismissal order. See The Dartmouth Review v. Dartmouth College, 889 F.2d 13, 23 (1st Cir.1989) (stating the general rule that where the pleader has stood upon his pleading and appealed from a judgment of dismissal, amendment will not ordinarily be permitted ... if the order of dismissal is affirmed ) (emphasis added) (quoting Rivera-Gomez v. de Castro, 843 F.2d 631, 635-36 (1st Cir.1988) (allowing amendment, even after affirming dismissal, where it is in the interest of justice)). 44 As for Totten's failure to seek leave to amend his complaint after the Contractors' Motion to Dismiss was granted, a factor on which President Lines relied in finding a waiver, see 28 F.3d at 151, the District Court made clear in the present case that such a request would have been futile. See Bombardier, 139 F.Supp.2d at 52 n. 1 (In other circumstances Totten would be permitted an opportunity to amend his complaint, but, as the remainder of this Opinion demonstrates, such an opportunity is not warranted in this case.). Given that the District Court expressly indicated that it would have allowed Totten to amend had it not viewed the Reform Act as posing an insurmountable obstacle to his suit — regardless of how that suit was packaged — we see no reason, having reversed the court's legal mistake, to forbid what would have been permitted in the absence of that error. Therefore, we will remand the case with instructions that Totten be granted leave to amend his complaint. 45 In so doing, however, we express no opinion on the question left open by this court's decision in Yesudian : whether an FCA plaintiff may prevail against a defendant who submits a false claim to a federal grantee (such as Amtrak), without presenting evidence that the claim was ever actually submitted to the U.S. government. See 153 F.3d at 737-39. Depending on how Totten crafts his amended complaint, this issue of statutory interpretation may be avoided altogether. We therefore leave it for another day.