Opinion ID: 32178
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Applying the Trejo Factors: Efficiency

Text: 79 The district court concluded that two of the Trejo factors measuring efficiency for the court and convenience for the parties weighed in favor of dismissal. As to the first factor, the court found that retaining the federal declaratory judgment suit would not necessarily serve judicial economy because the declaratory judgment defendants could still file state court suits, particularly against other lead paint manufacturers. On the other hand, resolution of the declaratory judgment action Sherwin-Williams filed would at a minimum decide issues critical to its role in future suits. As in Travelers, efficiencies may result from litigating issues pertinent to multiple potential claims against a defendant in one federal forum, as opposed to a number of state courts. 10 Some or all of the other paint manufacturers and sellers may join this declaratory action if the district court on remand decides to exercise its discretion to hear the case. See Kapiloff, 155 F.3d at 494 ([J]oinder of any relevant parties from the state action would more or less be an inevitability if the federal action proceeded.). The fact that other state suits might be filed is part of the reason that Sherwin-Williams sought a single forum to resolve important issues. 11 80 The district court found that if it decided to hear the declaratory judgment action, some of the defendants would be inconvenienced. All but one of the named declaratory judgment defendants is located in the Southern District of Mississippi, where the federal declaratory judgment action was filed. One defendant county is in the Northern District of Mississippi, but according to the record, not a burdensome distance from the federal courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi. 12 The fact that it would not be as convenient for all the declaratory judgment defendants to litigate in federal district court as it would be for them to litigate in the nearest state courthouse does not mean that it is unduly burdensome for them to do so. See, e.g., Dow Agrosciences v. Bates, 332 F.3d 323, 328 (5th Cir.2003) (finding that the declaratory judgment defendants, twenty-nine farmers of whom over half lived in the Abilene, Amarillo, Fort Worth, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls Divisions of the Northern District of Texas, were not inconvenienced by trial of declaratory judgment suit in Lubbock Division of Northern District of Texas); 13 Evanston Ins. Co. v. Jimco, Inc., 844 F.2d 1185, 1191-93 (5th Cir.1988) (in a case in which several businesses in eleven different locations in Louisiana sued an insurer in multiple state court suits, and insurer filed federal declaratory action against the state plaintiffs, New Orleans was a central geographic point among the Louisiana declaratory judgment defendants and litigation there did not pose major logistical difficulties justifying the federal court's abstaining from the case); cf. Travelers Indem. Co. v. Madonna, 914 F.2d 1364, 1368 (9th Cir. 1990) (200 mile distance between defendant and courthouse not so great as to warrant abstention under Colorado River doctrine). All but one of the declaratory judgment defendants reside in the Southern District of Mississippi and the one in the Northern District is not far away. Any marginal inconvenience is outweighed by the other factors that weigh in favor of proceeding with the federal declaratory judgment suit.