Jiang

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On April 12, 2022, Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Defendants. The dispute between the parties arose from an alleged agreement to operate a restaurant business. Plaintiffs filed a first amended complaint on July 5, 2022, and a second amended complaint on September 6, 2022. On September 15, 2022, Defendants filed a demurrer to the second amended complaint, and Plaintiffs filed an opposition. On February 17, 2023, the trial court sustained the demurrer with leave to amend.

Plaintiffs filed a third amended complaint on February 28, 2023,

followed by a “modified” third amended complaint on May 8, 2023,3 to which Defendants demurred on May 22, 2023. One day before the October 13, 2023 hearing on the demurrer, Plaintiffs filed an untimely document identified as

The first three versions of the complaint included additional defendants, but those defendants were omitted from the third amended complaint. The preliminary statement in the “modified” third amended complaint stated that the modifications were made to conform to the terms of the trial court’s ruling on the demurrer to the second amended complaint. That ruling included,…