Opinion ID: 785711
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The District Court's dismissal with prejudice

Text: 47 In addition to his arguments that the district court erred by dismissing his RICO claims without granting leave to amend, Wagh argues that it was error to dismiss those claims with prejudice before remanding his remaining claims to state court, thereby preventing him from pursuing the RICO claims in that forum. He asserts that the pleading requirements of California state courts for RICO are less stringent than are those of the federal courts. 48 The district court's Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal with prejudice operates as an adjudication on the merits of the claims under Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(b). Even though state courts have concurrent jurisdiction over RICO actions, Tafflin v. Levitt, 493 U.S. 455, 458, 110 S.Ct. 792, 107 L.Ed.2d 887 (1990), given the pleading flaws in this case, res judicata bars Wagh from reasserting his RICO claims in state court. 49 In his response to the first motion to dismiss his RICO claims, Wagh requested that the district court dismis his § 1962(a) claims without prejudice, asserting that discovery would enable him to plead this claim with greater specificity. The district court's decision to dismiss this claim with prejudice was not an abuse of its discretion. Wagh argues here, as he did before the distirect court, that he would be able to amend his § 1962(a) claim if the district court allowed discovery. As we discussed above, however, Wagh ws not entitled to conduct discovery at this stage of the proceedings because no factual issues were in dispute. 50 Futhermore, at no point did Wagh request that any of his other RICO claims be dismissed without prejudice so that he could pursue them in state court, nor did he voluntarily dismiss the claims so as to avoid the preclusive effect of a dismissal on the merits. 51 AFFIRMED.