Goose Pond AG, Inc. v. Duarte Nursery Inc.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 GOOSE POND AG, INC., No. 2:19-cv-02631-KJM-DB 12 Plaintiff, 13 v. ORDER 14 DUARTE NURSERY, INC. et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 Defendants Duarte Nursery, Inc., James Duarte and John Duarte (collectively, the 18 “Duarte parties” or “Duarte”) move to dismiss plaintiff Goose Pond Ag, Inc.’s (“Goose Pond”) 19 complaint for failure to join an indispensable party. Mot., ECF No. 18. Plaintiff opposes the 20 motion. Opp’n, ECF No. 20. Defendants replied. Reply, ECF No. 27. The court submitted the 21 motion without oral argument. Having carefully reviewed the moving papers and the applicable 22 law, the court DENIES the motion. 23 I. BACKGROUND 24 This case arises from Goose Pond’s purchase of approximately 1,505 acres of real 25 property in Tehama County, California (the “Tehama property”) from the Duarte parties. First 26 Am. Compl. (“FAC”) ¶ 1, ECF No. 16. John Duarte contacted Goose Pond’s agent, Farmland 27 Management Services…