Fireman's Fund Insurance v. Sparks Construction, Inc.

The original complaint in this action contained Doe allegations. The first amended complaint did not. After filing the first amended complaint, the plaintiff served two new defendants with the original summons and complaint, along with amendments purporting to name them as Does. These defendants filed answers, and all parties proceeded to litigate apace.

Almost a year later, the plaintiff sought leave to file a second amended complaint, in which these new defendants were explicitly named. This belatedly alerted the new defendants to the existence of the first amended complaint. The trial court denied leave to amend; indeed, it granted the new defendants judgment on the pleadings. It reasoned that the first amended complaint had effectively dismissed all Doe defendants; hence, the Doe amendments were ineffective, the second amended complaint did not relate back, and the statute of limitations had run.

In essence, the trial court ruled that, even though the new defendants had participated in the action for over a year, filing not only answers but also cross-complaints and even a motion for summary judgment, they had never really been parties at all. Moreover, it was too…