McMullen

MEMORANDUM *

Lead plaintiff Dorothy McMullen brought this case against the Fluor Corporation on behalf of a class of investors for alleged violations of securities laws and regulations occurring in the second half of 1996 and early 1997. In 2000, the district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ second amended consolidated complaint without prejudice for their failure to comply with the heightened pleading requirements of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (“PSLRA”). Then in 2002, the district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ third amended consolidated complaint with prejudice — thereby denying the plaintiffs leave to amend — because “nothing before the Court suggests that plaintiffs can amend their complaint to state a claim.” (The district court, in so ruling, did not have the benefit of subsequent decisions of this circuit that bear directly on the pleading posture of this case.) McMullen and the other class representatives now appeal the denial of leave to amend. We have jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . Because the complaint may be saved by amendment, we reverse.

Although the district court’s discretion to deny leave to amend is…