Opinion ID: 613119
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Piecemeal Litigation

Text: Piecemeal litigation occurs when different tribunals consider the same issue, thereby duplicating efforts and possibly reaching different results. Am. Int'l Underwriters, (Philippines), Inc. v. Cont'l Ins. Co., 843 F.2d 1253, 1258 (9th Cir.1988). The mere possibility of piecemeal litigation does not constitute an exceptional circumstance. See Travelers, 914 F.2d at 1369. Instead, the case must raise a special concern about piecemeal litigation, id., which can be remedied by staying or dismissing the federal proceeding. See Moses H. Cone, 460 U.S. at 20-21, 103 S.Ct. 927 (noting that a stay of the federal suit would not alleviate the possibility that some claims would be subject to arbitration while others were decided in court). With the Removed Action in state court, there is no question that maintaining the Federal Action would result in piecemeal litigation. But it would be improper for a court to stay or dismiss a case based on a possibility of piecemeal adjudication that the court could have avoided by other means. Because the district court could have retained jurisdiction over the Removed Action, the proper inquiry in this case is whether maintaining jurisdiction over the Federal Action would result in piecemeal litigation even if the Removed Action were not in state court. Like the district court, we conclude that it would. Even if the district court had stayed the Removed Action, deciding the Federal Action and the Vulcan Action in separate courts would result in duplication of efforts. Both the Vulcan Action and the Federal Action are centered on whether the 1981 Policy obligates Transport to cover damages and defense costs in the Tort Actions. In Colorado River, the Court noted that the McCarran Amendment evidenced a clear policy of avoiding piecemeal adjudication of water rights in a river system. 424 U.S. at 819, 96 S.Ct. 1236. Here, there is no explicit policy of avoiding piecemeal adjudication, but like the government in Colorado River, Street asks the district court to adjudicate rights that are implicated in a `vastly more comprehensive' state action. Travelers, 914 F.2d at 1369. The state court consolidated multiple cases to create a comprehensive scheme for deciding coverage in the Tort Actions. There was a highly interdependent relationship between the claims in the Federal Action and the claims in the Vulcan Action, Colorado River, 424 U.S. at 819, 96 S.Ct. 1236, and although Street/National Union had not yet brought their claims, the state court contemplated these claims in its plans for proceeding in the Vulcan Action. The district court did not err by concluding that avoidance of piecemeal litigation weighs significantly against jurisdiction, particularly in light of the next factor. See Am. Int'l Underwriters, 843 F.2d at 1258 (upholding a Colorado River dismissal, in part to avoid piecemeal litigation).