So, RingPlus has pulled the lawsuit. Dismissed with prejudice. That's it for RingPlus.
Perhaps they reached a settlement with Sprint.
Perhaps R+ twisted Sprint's arm so effectively that, in exchange for dropping the lawsuit, Sprint agreed to provide all currently active R+ lines lifetime unlimited service.
If I understand the Notice of Dismissal correctly, Sprint effectively ignored the lawsuit and RingPlus gave up:
"PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Plaintiff RingPlus, Inc. (“Plaintiff”), pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1), hereby voluntarily dismisses all claims in this action with prejudice as to all Defendants. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1) provides in relevant part that the plaintiff may dismiss an action without a court order by filing a notice of dismissal before the opposing party serves either an answer or a motion for summary judgment. Defendants have neither answered Plaintiff’s Complaint, nor filed a motion for summary judgment. Thus, this matter may be dismissed without an order of the Court. Accordingly, Plaintiff hereby dismisses this action with prejudice." (emphasis added)
I'm guessing that agreeing to drop the lawsuit was part of the reason for Sprint giving an extension to February 21st before shutting off service.
Seeing that R+ offered two new more generous plans during the extension, Sprint most likely waived the outstanding balances owed to them. Sprint probably saw that R+ is out of money and has no assets except it's helpful mods.
Funny how certain members were convinced that R+ had failed because of Sprint and were owed hundreds of millions. Yet R+ drops their lawsuit with prejudice. LOL.
There could have been a few agreements outside of the lawsuit. But by and large, clearly, the majority of the issues raised in the lawsuit were likely questionable.
What's interesting is "With Prejudice" this means that a judge did look at the case and deemed that a trial would be valid....
Is that what "With Prejudice" means?
I thought it meant that it meant that the right to bring back the case to trial was waived.
And in this case, it appears to me that R+ have decided to withdraw the case and waive any right to file it again.
With Prejudice in the criminal system means that dropping the case was a conclusive decision by the judge. I would assume it's the same/similar in a lawsuit like this.
OOOO found a clear link: http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/W/WithPrejudice.aspx
Hmmm, but the statement reads as follows:
"Thus, this matter may be dismissed without an order of the Court. Accordingly, Plaintiff hereby dismisses this action with prejudice."
To me, this sounds like this notice is coming from Ringplus and in it they are declaring that they are dropping the case and doing so with prejudice. Both dropping the case and doing so with prejudice is voluntary on their part.
"If the motion is filed "with prejudice", the lawsuit is dismissed and the plaintiff is not allowed to bring the same lawsuit against the same defendant on a later date. If the motion is filed "without prejudice", the only thing that is being dismissed is the current lawsuit, but the plaintiff reserves the right to bring about a new lawsuit against the same defendant at a later date. The kind of motion that is filed usually determined by the out-of-court settlement reached by both parties." How to Withdraw a Lawsuit | Legal Beagle
That is indeed how I understood it.
They have obviously agreed to something behind closed doors.
- Waiving the outstanding balances
- Allowing ringplus to start over with the dialers without sprint
- extension to port out in return for moving customers to a stable sprint mvno
- removal of sprint' s musicplus?
All of the above?
Sprint agreeing not to file a countersuit?
One would hope. Though if R+ is that far in debt, it's doubtful there would be a point to it.
"With Prejudice" only prevents R+ from filing another suit. It doesn't prevent Sprint from filing one.
"With Prejudice"
Agreed.
So the question becomes, why Plaintiff served voluntary Notice of Dismissal with Prejudice?
Obviously, there is no way to know but that does suggest some form of quid pro quo as Sprint has in fact gained from that action. As a minimum, it is not required to expend resources defending the suit.
Usually, things happen for a good reason. It is not common that the actual reason is shared with the public.
Perhaps, and pure speculation only, "with prejudice" only prevents Ringplus from filing the 'same' lawsuit, giving ringplus time to perfect their case.
Except this one was very 'throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks. If I recall how this works, if they were to file another lawsuit it would have to be entirely new and not include anything included in this one.
"with prejudice" only prevents Ringplus from filing the 'same' lawsuit, giving ringplus time to perfect their case.
That is indeed an interesting way of looking at it.
In looking at the Complaint in the suit that has been withdrawn one might conclude it was hastily prepared.
At the same time, from a purely strategic perspective, it would have been sufficient to petition for injunctive relief and file the suit at a later date should it have appeared additional time to prepare were needed.
While presumably, it would not be impossible to file a different suit, there would be serious hurdles to overcome in order to demonstrate that is was not merely a restatement of parts of the original Complaint.
Even if that could be established, there would remain the substantive issue of the grounds on which a new suit might be filed.
One is inclined to imagine that the best arguments that could be presented were already included in the original suit.
I wouldn't call that speculation as much as wishful thinking.