Opinion ID: 147216
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Amendments to the Pleadings

Text: WWR could have, but failed to, assert a Central Hudson challenge to the Supergraphic and Off-Site Sign Bans. WWR argues that this is so because the district court abused its discretion in curtailing amendments to the pleadings. We disagree. On January 7, 2007, WWR filed its initial complaint, which the district court would later describe as, to put it mildly, disorganized. Following a motion to dismiss, the district court concluded that WWR could proceed on allegations that the LAMC impermissibly vested unbridled discretion in a Cultural Affairs Committee and a Community Redevelopment Agency and on a facial challenge to the LAMC's Hazard to Traffic provision, which is distinct from the Freeway Facing Sign Ban. See LAMC § 14.4.5. The initial complaint did not contain a Central Hudson challenge to the Freeway Facing Sign Ban or a prior restraint challenge to the Supergraphic and Off-Site Sign Bans. The scheduling order's September 24, 2007, deadline for amending the pleadings came and went without activity. As the district court stated, This should have settled the pleadings. It did not. On January 14, 2008, WWR moved for a preliminary injunction, raising for the first time its Central Hudson challenge to the Freeway Facing Sign Ban and its unconstitutional prior restraint challenge to the Supergraphic and Off-Site Sign Bans. On April 3, 2008, instead of denying WWR's preliminary injunction motion for raising claims beyond the scope of the complaint, the district court extended the deadline for amendments to the pleadings to May 5, 2008, and accepted WWR's amended complaint, which incorporated its new First Amendment claims. At that time, the district court admonished the parties that it would not entertain any further amendments to the pleadings after May 5, noting that the pleadings should have been settled long ago. The new May 5, 2008, deadline for amending the pleadings came and went without further activity; WWR never sought leave for further amendments. Specifically, WWR never moved for leave to add to its complaint a Central Hudson challenge to the Supergraphic and Off-Site Sign Bans. The district court could not rule on a motion that WWR never made, and we reject WWR's attempt to appeal a nonexistent denial of a nonexistent motion. Given the absence of an adverse ruling from which it may appeal, WWR argues that it would have been futile to seek leave to amend the complaint in light of the district court's statement that such requests would not be entertained. We do not share WWR's view that the district court's admonition was an excuse for WWR's failure to at least proffer a proposed amendment to the pleadings. Assuming, however, that the panel may consider the language of the district court's April 3 order as a de facto prospective denial of motions to amend the pleadings, WWR's argument still fails. The district court's discretion to deny leave to amend is particularly broad where a plaintiff previously has amended the complaint. See Zucco Partners, LLC v. Digimarc Corp., 552 F.3d 981, 1007 (9th Cir.2009). Here, WWR already had been given leave to amend the complaint more than a year into the litigation and several months after passage of the scheduling order's deadline. The district court understandably was wary of further delays. WWR advances no reasonmuch less a good reasonfor its failure to amend its complaint to include a Central Hudson challenge to the Supergraphic and Off-Site Sign Bans. This oversight is particularly inexcusable given that WWR was aware of the possibility of a Central Hudson claim (as evident from its challenge to the Freeway Facing Sign Ban) and was aware of the Supergraphic and Off-Site Sign Bans (as evident from its unbridled discretion challenge to those Bans).