Opinion ID: 26120
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: issues

Text: Garlock contends that a transfer of venue to the District of Delaware would obtain “a ‘centralized,’ ‘efficient,’ cost-effective application of a uniform, fair system for assessing and compensating asbestos-related claimants” under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(5) and the automatic stay feature of 11 U.S.C. § 362, “to avoid unnecessary repetition, confusion, inconsistent results in multiple trials of common issues, cost or delay where these many cases do not have to be multiplied.”14 In addition to seeking a 14 See Petitioner’s Emergency Motion for Stay at 3 (for cases consolidated under Fifth Circuit Case No. 01-41327). In cases filed at later dates and consolidated under other case numbers, Garlock’s intent is stated in a different location. For example, “[a] stay in this action will promote the stated congressional public policy reflected in § 157(b)(5) of having all matters ‘related to’ bankruptcy reviewed toward implementing centralized, efficient and expeditious proceedings conserving the debtor’s resources and distributing the debtor’s assets for the benefit of all creditors alike.” See Petitioner’s Emergency Motion for Stay at 14 (for cases consolidated under Fifth Circuit Case No. 0129 centralized forum under federal bankruptcy laws, which, we note, Garlock may desire as much for perceived protection from judgments in the state courts, Garlock appears to be contemplating the availability of coordinated federal court judgments for their preclusive effect in future actions. To the extent that Garlock’s contention can be read to embrace one made more explicitly by the “Big Three” automobile manufacturers15--that transfer to the District of Delaware bankruptcy court would facilitate a ruling on the ability of friction products to be a producing cause of asbestos-related diseases, a ruling that would be used for purposes of issue preclusion in other cases--Garlock faces formidable obstacles. As an initial matter, we note that Garlock has not attempted to certify as a class these and other asbestos cases--the only widely- 51209). Regardless, all of the motions reflect the same underlying general facts, legal theory and intent. 15 The “Big Three” automobile manufacturers, who are co-defendants in many of these same cases, are being sued as users of asbestos friction products, such as brakes in automobiles. They moved in the District of Delaware to transfer all such claims against them under § 157(b)(5) for the specifically stated intent of conducting Daubert hearings for the admission of scientific evidence and a ruling that brake/friction products are conclusively not a possible source of disease-producing asbestos. See Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589 (1993). Such a ruling would then be used for issue preclusion in future cases. Garlock and amici have briefed the auto manufacturers’ effort from their opposing perspectives and counsel for Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler Corp. and General Motors Corp. has further informed us by letter dated December 12, 2001, that the District of Delaware has provisionally transferred only those claims to that court for further determinations. 30 credited medium for disposing of multiple claims while barring relitigation of resolved issues. Less well-accepted is consolidation under Rule 42, but this approach is complicated by the cases involved having been filed in multiple courts in diffuse districts and by the absence of complete uniformity among parties and interests. Even more tenuous would be resort to judicial notice under FED. R. EVID. 201. For a party to tee up an issue for decision in a selected court with the expectation that any rulings would not only be referenced by subsequent courts but also applied as binding--and in the face of inconsistent decisions previously rendered elsewhere--is to hope for a most novel application of that rule indeed. But no matter how creative the procedural avenue, and in spite of the fact that this litigation would benefit from a uniform approach, at almost every turn this circuit has rejected attempts at aggregation and issue preclusion in asbestos cases. Our adversity toward group resolution sounds in our concern that no one be deprived the right to a full and fair opportunity to litigate their claims. In C.A. Hardy v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 681 F.2d 334 (5th Cir. 1982), we turned aside a district court’s order that nonparty asbestos companies were estopped from relitigating issues of dangerousness and causation as violative of the fundamental right to trial by jury. We reached this conclusion based on the manufacturers’ each having an interest in the 31 plaintiffs proving the same set of facts. Indeed, in Hardy we went so far as to conclude that the presence of inconsistent findings in other cases on the same questions at issue in Hardy made the application of collateral estoppel highly problematic even as to the parties themselves. Of course Garlock need not be reminded of Hardy’s place in this circuit’s jurisprudence for it was one of the defendants that opposed any attempt to bar the relitigation of key dispositive issues. The passage of time has not weakened the teachings of Hardy. In re Fibreboard, 893 F.2d 706 (5th Cir. 1990), saw this court issue a writ of mandamus against the trial of a representative group of plaintiffs on the issues of duty and damages. There, we said that adherence to state substantive law and to the Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury would not tolerate making the resolution of a handful of claims binding as to defendant asbestos manufacturers’ liability with respect to all plaintiffs. In Cimino v. Raymark Industries, Inc., 151 F.3d 297 (5th Cir. 1998), we again revisited the same district court’s revised effort at mass resolution. There, we emphasized that federal rules providing for aggregation of claims--specifically, FED. R. CIV. P. 23 and 42-- cannot override the necessity of proving causation as to each defendant, a requirement of the state law providing the cause of action and of the right to trial by jury. As we did in Fibreboard, we refused to tolerate deviation from fundamental principles of due 32 process simply because asbestos cases threatened to swamp the resources of the federal courts. The closest this circuit has come to utilization of issue preclusion in the asbestos context is Jenkins v. Raymark, 831 F.2d 550 (5th Cir. 1987). In that case, a certified class of 753 claimants were permitted to try common issues in a single trial, the result of which was applicable to the class. The procedure approved in Jenkins, however, still required individual jury determinations of causation and damages. The efficiencies to be obtained from issue preclusion, therefore, cannot in this circuit serve as a basis for the transfer of cases under 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(5).