Wells
Wells v. Maplebear Inc.
Opinion
trial_court Opinion
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9
LANCE C. WELLS,
10 Case No. 23-cv-06263-RS Plaintiff, 11 v. ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO 12 DISMISS MAPLEBEAR INC. dba INSTACART, 50 13 Beale St. #600, San Francisco, CA 94105, 14 Defendant.
15 I. INTRODUCTION 16 Plaintiff Lance C. Wells brings a First Amendment claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 averring 17 Defendant Maplebear Inc. (“Instacart”) impermissibly interfered with his freedom of speech by 18 coercing him into signing a settlement agreement with an “extremely broad” non-disparagement 19 clause. Dkt. 1, at 2. Wells contends Instacart is a state actor for purposes of his First Amendment 20 claim. Instacart moves to dismiss Wells’ suit on, in part, res judicata grounds. For the reasons 21 explained below, Instacart’s motion to dismiss is granted. Wells’ motion for relief from automatic 22 referral to Alternative Dispute Resolution is denied as moot. 23 II. BACKGROUND1 24 …