Morning Star Packing Co. v. Crown Cork & Seal Co. (USA)

MEMORANDUM **

Morning Star Packing Company, L.P. and California Fruit and Tomato Kitchens, *401 L.L.C. appeal the district court’s judgment in favor of Crown Cork & Seal Company (USA), Inc. We affirm.

(1) Principally, Morning Star and California Fruit assert that the district court erred when it rejected them request for reformation to add (or effectually substitute) California Fruit as a party to an agreement that tolled the statute of limitations as to Morning Star only. Under California law, there was no error. We review the district court’s denial of leave to amend the agreement in dispute under an abuse of discretion standard. The district court’s reliance on longstanding California law was not an abuse of discretion. In the pithy, and now sadly lost, style of earlier days, the California Supreme Court decided a case which controls the result in this one. See Mabb v. Merriam, 129 Cal. 663 , 62 P. 212 (1900). In Mabb , the plaintiff, J.W. Mabb, a married woman, verbally agreed with H.H. Merriam to exchange lands. Id. at 664 , 62 P. at 212 . J.W. Mabb’s husband, J.J. Mabb, then “attended to the drawing up of the preliminary contract.” Id. Alas, the wife, J.W. Mabb, was not…