Opinion ID: 766776
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of Leave to Amend Plaintiff's Complaint

Text: 39 Under Rule 15(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the district court may grant leave to amend pleadings and such leave shall be freely given when justice so requires. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a). However, leave to amend is inappropriate where there is undue delay, bad faith, dilatory motive on the part of the movant, repeated failure to cure deficiencies by amendments previously allowed, undue prejudice to the opposing party by virtue of allowance of the amendment, or futility of the amendment. Perrian v. O'Grady, 958 F.2d 192, 194 (7th Cir. 1992). We will reverse a denial of a motion to amend only if the district court has abused its discretion. Id. 40 Feldman moved for leave to add an additional defendant and an additional ERISA claim on September 29, 1997. This motion came six months after the March 7, 1997, close of discovery and three months after the district court set a briefing schedule for Prairie States' motion for summary judgment. Although Feldman argues that she did not discover the facts necessitating the amendment until April 28, 1997, she still did not file her motion to amend for another five months, on September 29, 1997. The prejudice to the new defendant and the delay to Prairie States, well after the close of discovery and on the eve of summary judgment proceedings, justified the district court's denial of Feldman's motion. Although the district court did not articulate its basis for decision, denial of a motion to amend pleadings without explanation does not constitute abuse of discretion if the delay and prejudice that would result from such amendment was apparent. See Sanders v. Venture Stores, 56 F.3d 771, 773-74 (7th Cir. 1995). This was the case here.