A bill to amend title 28, United States Code, to allow a judge to whom a case is transferred to retain jurisdiction over certain multidistrict litigation cases for trial, and for other purposes.

Summary: Multidistrict Litigation Restoration Act of 2005 [sic] - Amends the federal judicial code to allow a civil action transferred for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings (multidistrict litigation) to be transferred to the transferee or other district for trial purposes in the interest of justice and for the convenience of the parties and witnesses. Requires that any such action transferred for trial purposes be remanded to the district court from which it was transferred for the determination of compensatory damages, unless the court determines the same justification applies to retaining the action for damages determination.

Authorizes the transferee court to retain actions transferred, for the determination of liability and punitive damages, when jurisdiction is or could have been based on the Multiparty, Multiforum Trial Jurisdiction Act of 2002 (which grants district courts original jurisdiction of any civil action involving minimal diversity between adverse parties that arises from a single accident, where at least 75 natural persons have died in the accident at a discrete location). Requires that an action retained for the determination of liability be remanded to the district court from which the action was transferred, or to the state court from which the action was removed, for the determination of damages, other than punitive damages, unless the court finds that the action should be retained for the determination of such damages for the convenience of parties and witnesses and in the interest of justice.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Multidistrict Litigation Restoration 
Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) under section 1407 of title 28, United States Code 
        (enacted April 29, 1968), the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict 
        Litigation (in this section referred to as the ``Judicial 
        Panel''), a group of 7 Federal judges selected by the Chief 
        Justice of the United States, assists in the centralization of 
        civil actions which share common questions of fact filed in 
        more than 1 Federal judicial district nationwide;
            (2) civil actions described under paragraph (1)--
                    (A) often arise from mass single-action torts that 
                cause death and destruction in which the plaintiffs are 
                from many different States; and
                    (B) often involve issues of critical importance to 
                the Nation, including information technology, 
                intellectual property, antitrust, contracts, and 
                products liability cases;
            (3) the Judicial Panel--
                    (A) identifies the 1 United States district court 
                (referred to in this section as the ``transferee 
                court'') best equipped at adjudicating pretrial 
                matters; and
                    (B) after pretrial, remands individual civil 
                actions back to the district where the civil action was 
                originally filed unless that action has been previously 
                terminated;
            (4)(A) for approximately 3 decades, the transferee court 
        often invoked a general venue statute that authorizes a 
        district court to transfer a civil action in the interest of 
        justice and for the convenience of the parties and witnesses;
            (B) in effect, the transferee court simply transferred all 
        of the civil actions for trial to itself; and
            (C) this process worked well because the transferee court 
        was well-versed in the facts and law of the centralized 
        litigation and the court could assist all parties to settle 
        when appropriate;
            (5) in 1998, the United States Supreme Court held that the 
        plain language of section 1407 of title 28, United States Code, 
        requires the Judicial Panel to remand all civil actions for 
        trial back to the respective districts from which such actions 
        were originally referred;
            (6) the absence of authority to transfer a centralized 
        civil action for trial hampers the Judicial Panel and 
        transferee judges in their ability to achieve the important 
        goals of section 1407 of that title promoting the just and 
        efficient conduct of multidistrict litigation;
            (7) the Judicial Panel has inherent rulemaking authority to 
        promulgate procedural rules pertaining to multidistrict 
        litigation which the Judicial Panel has already exercised to 
        ensure that when a centralization occurs all civil actions of a 
        similar nature then filed and all later civil actions that may 
        be filed are sent to 1 district court;
            (8) Congress has statutorily conferred the Judicial Panel 
        with rulemaking authority for the conduct of its business not 
        inconsistent with the United States Constitution, Acts of 
        Congress, and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; and
            (9) in civil actions in which punitive damages are to be 
        imposed, individual courts, including transferee courts, must 
        ensure that the measure of punishment is both reasonable and 
        proportionate to the amount of harm to plaintiffs and to the 
        amount of compensatory damages received.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to improve the litigation 
system in the Nation to allow a Federal judge to whom a civil action is 
transferred under section 1407 of title 28, United States Code, to 
retain jurisdiction over certain civil actions for trial to determine 
liability and compensatory and punitive damages, if appropriate, in 
compliance with due process requirements.

SEC. 3. MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION.

    Section 1407 of title 28, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in the third sentence of subsection (a), by inserting 
        ``or ordered transferred to the transferee or other district 
        under subsection (i)'' after ``terminated''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(i)(1) Subject to paragraph (2) and except as provided in 
subsection (j), any action transferred under this section by the panel 
may be transferred for trial purposes, by the judge or judges of the 
transferee district to whom the action was assigned, to the transferee 
or other district in the interest of justice and for the convenience of 
the parties and witnesses.
    ``(2) Any action transferred for trial purposes under paragraph (1) 
shall be remanded by the panel for the determination of compensatory 
damages to the district court from which it was transferred, unless the 
court to which the action has been transferred for trial purposes also 
finds, for the convenience of the parties and witnesses and in the 
interests of justice, that the action should be retained for the 
determination of compensatory damages.''.

SEC. 4. TECHNICAL AMENDMENT TO MULTIPARTY, MULTIFORM TRIAL JURISDICTION 
              ACT OF 2002.

    Section 1407 of title 28, United States Code, as amended by section 
3 of this Act, is further amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(j)(1) In actions transferred under this section when 
jurisdiction is or could have been based, in whole or in part, on 
section 1369 of this title, the transferee district court may, 
notwithstanding any other provision of this section, retain actions so 
transferred for the determination of liability and punitive damages. An 
action retained for the determination of liability shall be remanded to 
the district court from which the action was transferred, or to the 
State court from which the action was removed, for the determination of 
damages, other than punitive damages, unless the court finds, for the 
convenience of parties and witnesses and in the interest of justice, 
that the action should be retained for the determination of damages.
    ``(2) Any remand under paragraph (1) shall not be effective until 
60 days after the transferee court has issued an order determining 
liability and has certified its intention to remand some or all of the 
transferred actions for the determination of damages. An appeal with 
respect to the liability determination and the choice of law 
determination of the transferee court may be taken during that 60-day 
period to the court of appeals with appellate jurisdiction over the 
transferee court. In the event a party files such an appeal, the remand 
shall not be effective until the appeal has been finally disposed of. 
Once the remand has become effective, the liability determination and 
the choice of law determination shall not be subject to further review 
by appeal or otherwise.
    ``(3) An appeal with respect to determination of punitive damages 
by the transferee court may be taken, during the 60-day period 
beginning on the date the order making the determination is issued, to 
the court of appeals with jurisdiction over the transferee court.
    ``(4) Any decision under this subsection concerning remand for the 
determination of damages, other than punitive damages, shall not be 
reviewable by appeal or otherwise.
    ``(5) Nothing in this subsection shall restrict the authority of 
the transferee court to transfer or dismiss an action on the ground of 
inconvenient forum.''.

SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    (a) Multidistrict Litigation.--The amendments made by section 3 
shall apply to any civil action pending on or brought on or after the 
date of the enactment of this Act.
    (b) Technical Amendment.--The amendment made by section 4 shall be 
effective as if enacted in section 11020(b) of the Multiparty, 
Multiforum Trial Jurisdiction Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-273; 116 
Stat. 1826 et seq.).