Jeffrey Johnson v. Hewlett-Packard Company

MEMORANDUM

Appellants Jeffrey Johnson, Jennifer Riese, James Purvis, and Shaun Simmons appeal the district court’s (1) denial of their motion to amend their complaint a fourth time, (2) denial of their request for additional discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d), and (3) grant of summary judgment in favor of Appellee Hewlett-Packard Company (“HP”). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I

The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Appellants’ request for leave to amend their complaint a fourth time after it concluded that three of the factors described in Foman v. Davis—delay, prejudice, and prior amendment—favored denial. See 371 U.S. 178, 182 , 83 S.Ct. 227 , 9 L.Ed.2d 222 (1962). First, Appellants “knew or should have known” that their operative complaint was narrower than their proposed amendment as early as July 2010, when the district court relied on Appellants’ narrow expression of their claims in denying HP’s Motion to Dismiss or Strike class allegations. Yet Appellants did not seek leave to amend until the end of March 2011. See AmerisourceBergen Corp. v. Dialysist W., Inc., 465 F.3d 946, 953 (9th Cir.2006)…