United States Ninth Circuit

The district court's order dismissing three defendants after holding that they were improperly joined in an action under the Americans with Disabilities Act is reversed, where: 1) as originally filed, two defendants were properly joined under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20(a)(2) because they shared the common transaction or occurrence of a landlord-tenant relationship, and the plaintiff retained viable claims against the landlord defendant; 2) the district court abused its discretion by dismissing rather than severing the plaintiff's complaint against the two other defendants without evaluating the prejudice to plaintiff; and 3) district courts that dismiss rather than sever must conduct a prejudice analysis.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/03/2015
• Published 03/03/2015

Judges

• Motz

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel