Opinion
Civil No. 06-1662 (JAF).
December 18, 2006
OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiffs, the Estate of Antonio Cruz, Wilma Colón, Joel E. Cruz, Jorge E. Cruz, Antonio E. Cruz, and Anelmy Cruz, bring the present diversity action against Defendants, Galaxy Nutritional Foods, Inc. and various unnamed defendants, alleging state claims for breach of contract, damages, unjust enrichment, and breach of the Puerto Rico Dealership and Sales Representative Acts, 10 L.P.R.A. § 278 (2004) ("Law 75") and 10 L.P.R.A. § 279 (2002) ("Law 21"). Docket Document No. 1-1.
On September 5, 2006, Defendants moved to dismiss this diversity action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). Docket Document No. 6. Significantly, Defendants did not argue that the parties in this case are not actually diverse, only that Plaintiffs' original complaint failed to plead the parties' citizenship adequately, with sufficient specificity. Id.
Plaintiffs responded to Defendants' motion to dismiss on September 6, 2006, by amending their complaint to include specific allegations of each party's citizenship. Docket Document Nos. 7, 8. We agree with Plaintiffs that the amendment, made before Defendants had answered Plaintiffs' complaint, was proper and effectively eliminated the grounds for dismissal raised by Defendants. See FED. R. CIV. P. 15(a) (allowing a party to amend a pleading once "as a matter of course at any time before a responsive pleading is served"); Heller v. Allied Textile Co., 276 F.Supp. 2d 175, 181 (D.Me. 2003) (stating that a district court may permit a plaintiff to amend the pleadings to establish subject matter jurisdiction if the original complaint contains some indication of an existing foundation for jurisdiction).
In accordance with the foregoing, we DENY Defendants' motion to dismiss.