Opinion ID: 1308260
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Denial of Central United's Application to Amend its Answer to Assert Affirmative Defenses and a Counterclaim.

Text: The first assignment of error raised by Central United is a claim that the district court erred in refusing its application to amend its answer to add a counterclaim and affirmative defenses. A. The proposed counterclaim. Central United's proposed counterclaim alleged that Wooldridge caused it damage by leaking sensitive policyholder data to a person or persons outside the company and by neglecting his normal duties as president of the company. In denying Central United's application to amend, the district court concluded that the proposed counterclaim would inject new issues into litigation that had been pending for some time and thus unduly delay its completion. We review rulings of that nature for an abuse of discretion. In re Marriage of Fields, 508 N.W.2d 730, 732 (Iowa 1993). It appears that both items of recovery sought to be asserted in the proposed counterclaim and the basis therefor were matters known to Central United almost from the inception of the litigation. The action had been filed in August 1993. There had already been one continuance of the original trial date. Under the circumstances confronting the court, we are unable to conclude that it abused its discretion in denying Central United's application to file a counterclaim. See Bennett v. City of Redfield, 446 N.W.2d 467, 474-75 (Iowa 1989) (denying motion to amend filed sixteen months after suit was commenced, twenty days before trial date, and after deadlines set by the court). B. The proposed affirmative defenses. The proposed affirmative defenses mirrored the issues sought to be injected by way of counterclaim. These defenses thus attempted to inject new issues at a point even later in the litigation than had been the case with the proffered counterclaim. Here again, no abuse of discretion on the district court's part has been demonstrated. See id.