The Knit With v. Knitting Fever Inc

THE KNIT WITH, Plaintiff,

v.KNITTING FEVER, INC., DESIGNER YARNS, LTD., FILATURA PETTINATA V.V.G.

DI STEFANO VACCARI & C., SION ELALOUF, DIANE ELALOUF, JEFFREY J. DENECKE, JR.,

JAY OPPERMAN, and DEBBIE BLISS, Defendants.

THE KNIT WITH, Plaintiff,

v.EISAKU NORO & CO., LTD., KNITTING FEVER, INC., SION ELALOUF, DIANE ELALOUF, and JAY OPPERMAN, Defendants.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 08-4221

CIVIL ACTION NO. 08-4775

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Dated: March 10, 2011

MEMORANDUM

BUCKWALTER, S.J.

Currently pending before the Court are Motions to Dismiss filed by Defendant Filatura Pettinata V.V.G. Di Stefano Vaccari & C. ("Filatura") and Defendant Designer Yarns, Inc. ("Designer Yarns") (collectively "Moving Defendants"). For the reasons which follow, the Motion to Dismiss by Defendant Designer Yarns is granted, and the Motion to Dismiss by DefendantFilatura is granted in part and denied in part.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The factual background of this case is one familiar to both the parties and the Court and has been reiterated in several of this Court's prior opinions.¹ This matter arises between Plaintiff, The Knit With ("The Knit"), a small, family-owned and operated business retailing specialty yarns and accessories to consumers, Defendant Knitting Fever, Inc. ("KFI"), a New York corporation that imports and distributes specialty yarns, and Defendants Filatura, Debbie Bliss, and Designer Yarns, all of whom are non-U.S. entities that design, manufacture, and/or distribute speciality yarns. At the core of the dispute is Plaintiff's claim that KFI sold designer knitting yarns to The Knit, representing that the yarns contained a percentage of cashmere, which they allegedly did not.

Plaintiff initiated litigation against KFI, its officers/directors, Filatura, Designer Yarns, and Debbie Bliss alleging that, as a consequence of the false labeling of three of the six Cashmerino yarns at issue, its business and commercial interests were harmed. (Compl., The Knit With v. Knitting Fever, Inc., No. CIV.A.08-4221 (E.D. Pa. Sep. 2, 2008) ("The Knit With I").) The Complaint set forth several causes of action, including: (1) breach of the express warranty of merchantability; (2) breach of the implied warranty of merchantability; (3) false advertising under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(B); (4) injury to business and property pursuant to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. § 1962; (5) conspiracy to cause injury to business and property pursuant to RICO; (6) perfidious trade practices (deceit) under the common law of unfair competition; and (7) piercing the corporate veil. (Id. ¶¶ 82-150.)Defendants Knitting Fever, Inc., Sion Elalouf, Diane Elalouf, Jeffrey Denecke, and Jay Opperman (collectively, the "KFI Defendants") moved, on September 24, 2008, to dismiss the third, fourth, and fifth counts.

On October 6, 2008, prior to the resolution of this motion to dismiss, Plaintiff initiated a second litigation against the KFI Defendants, also including as Defendants the Japanese manufacturers of the remaining three Cashmerino yarns at issue. (Compl., The Knit With v. Eisaku Noro & Co., Ltd., No. CIV.A.08-4775 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 6, 2008) ("The Knit With II").) The Complaint in that case set forth the following causes of action: (1) breach of express warranty of merchantability of goods for resale to consumers; (2) breach of implied warranty of merchantability of goods for resale to consumers; (3) explicitly false advertising pursuant to the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(B); (4) perfidious trade practices and common law unfair competition; (5) civil conspiracy; and (6) piercing the corporate veil. The KFI Defendants filed another motion to dismiss with respect to The Knit With II. (Id. ¶v 35-82.)

On December 18, 2008, this Court, in The Knit With I, granted the motion to dismiss the Lanham Act claim on standing grounds, but declined to dismiss the RICO claims. The Knit With v. Knitting Fever, Inc., No. CIV.A.08-4221, 2008 WL 5381349, at *1-6 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 18, 2008). The following day, the Court also dismissed the Lanham Act claim in The Knit With II. The Knit With v. Eisaku Noro and Co., Ltd., No. CIV.A.08-4775, 2008 WL 5273582 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 19, 2008). By way of Order dated December 23, 2008, the Court consolidated both actions under the first civil action number.

Following the KFI Defendants' submission of their Answer and Counterclaims for defamation, tortious interference with existing and prospective contracts, and trade libel, Plaintiff moved, on January 22, 2009, to dismiss all counterclaims and strike all affirmative defenses. TheCourt struck the KFI Defendants' fifth affirmative defense, but denied the motion in all other respects. The Knit With v. Knitting Fever, Inc., No. CIV.A.08-4221, 2009 WL 973492 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 8, 2009). Thereafter, via a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings filed on July 15, 2009, the KFI Defendants sought to dismiss Plaintiff's RICO, deceit, and conspiracy claims. The Court declined to dismiss the RICO claims, but granted judgment on the pleadings on both the deceit and conspiracy claims. The Knit With v. Knitting Fever, Inc., No. CIV.A.08-4221, 2009 WL 3427054 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 20, 2009). Plaintiff's sole remaining claims in this case are the RICO and breach of warranty actions.

In early May 2010, Plaintiff moved for a default judgment against Defendants Filatura, Designer Yarns, and Debbie Bliss, who, throughout this entire course of events, had never entered appearances. Defendant Filatura countered, on May 12, 2010, with a Motion to Dismiss for insufficient service. That same day, the Clerk of this Court entered defaults against Defendants Debbie Bliss and Designer Yarns. On May 14, 2010, these two latter Defendants moved to reopen the defaults against them and also filed Motions to Dismiss for insufficient service identical in nature to the one filed by Filatura. The following July, the Court set aside defaults, found that none of the three foregoing Defendants had been properly served, and granted Plaintiff sixty days to properly serve these Defendants. The Knit With v. Knitting Fever, Inc., No. CIV.A.08-4221, 2010 WL 2788203 (E.D. Pa. July 23, 2010). Following Plaintiff's successful service of only Debbie Bliss and new rounds of motions to dismiss by all three non-U.S. Defendants, the Court dismissed the Complaint against Debbie Bliss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. The Knit With v. Knitting Fever, Inc., No. CIV.A.08-4221, 2010 WL 4909929 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 1, 2010). As to Defendants Filatura and Designer Yarns, however, the Court ordered them to accept an alternate form of service from Plaintiff. The Knit With v. Knitting Fever, Inc., No. CIV.A.08-4221, 2010 WL 4977944 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 7, 2010).

On January 6, 2011, both Filatura and Defendant filed Motions to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim Upon Which Relief May Be Granted. Plaintiff responded by way of two separate briefs filed on January 27, 2011. On February 8, 2011, the Moving Defendants filed Reply Briefs, making this matter ripe for the Court's consideration.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Under Rule 12(b)(6), a defendant bears the burden of demonstrating that the plaintiff has not stated a claim upon which relief can be granted. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6); see also Hedges v. United States, 404 F.3d 744, 750 (3d Cir. 2005). In Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), the United States Supreme Court recognized that "a plaintiff's obligation to provide the 'grounds' of his 'entitle[ment] to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do." Id. at 555. It emphasized that it would not require a "heightened fact pleading of specifics, " but only "enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Id. at 570.

Following the basic precepts of Twombly, the Supreme Court, in the subsequent case of Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009), enunciated two fundamental principles applicable to a court's review of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. First, it noted that "the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions. Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice." Id. at 1949. Thus, although "[Federal] Rule [of Civil Procedure] 8 marks a notable and generous departure from the hyper-technical, code-pleading regime of a prior era... it does not unlock the doors of discovery for a plaintiff armed with nothing more than conclusions." Id. at 1950. Second, the Supreme Court emphasized that "only a complaint thatstates a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss." Id. "Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief will... be a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense." Id. The Supreme Court explained:

The plausibility standard is not akin to a "probability requirement, " but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully. Where a complaint pleads facts that are "merely consistent with" a defendant's liability, it "stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of 'entitlement to relief.'"

Id. at 1949 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556-57).

Expanding on the Twombly/Iqbal standards, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit succinctly summarized the two-prong analysis to be undertaken by district courts during a Rule 12(b)(6) review:

[A]fter Iqbal, when presented with a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, district courts should conduct a two-part analysis. First, the factual and legal elements of a claim should be separated. The district court must accept all of the complaint's well-pleaded facts as true, but may disregard...