Opinion ID: 518071
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the colorado river/moses h. cone doctrine

Text: 26 Sunoco also argues that the District Court's stay was appropriate under the doctrine of Colorado River, supra. We find, however, that the Colorado River doctrine furnishes no independent ground justifying the District Court's stay in this case. Indeed, the District Court did not even rely on Colorado River in issuing its stay. 27 In Colorado River, the Supreme Court found that dismissal of an action in federal court was appropriate because of considerations of '[w]ise judicial administration, giving regard to conservation of judicial resources and comprehensive disposition of litigation.'  424 U.S. at 817, 96 S.Ct. at 1246 (quoting Kerotest Mfg. Co. v. C-O-Two Fire Equipment Co., 342 U.S. 180, 183, 72 S.Ct. 219, 221, 96 L.Ed. 200 (1952)). This concern for wise judicial administration arguably encompasses the District Court's apparent concern over the complications that might be caused by parallel federal and Superior Court proceedings in this case. However, the Supreme Court has clearly instructed that Colorado River may not be invoked as a means of getting rid of cases that properly belong in federal court, and that the circumstances permitting the dismissal of a federal suit due to the presence of a concurrent state proceeding for reasons of wise judicial administration are considerably more limited than the circumstances appropriate for abstention. Colorado River, 424 U.S. at 818, 96 S.Ct. at 1246; accord Moses H. Cone, 460 U.S. at 15, 103 S.Ct. at 936. Rather, Colorado River created a narrow exception to the exercise of federal jurisdiction, and only truly exceptional circumstances will justify a stay or dismissal on grounds of judicial economy. Colorado River, 424 U.S. at 818, 96 S.Ct. at 1247; Moses H. Cone, 460 U.S. at 15, 103 S.Ct. at 936; see also Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp., --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1133, 1144, 99 L.Ed.2d 296 (1988). 28 In the instant case, however, the District Court did not purport to find any such circumstances, exceptional or otherwise, to justify the stay. It is arguably possible to rely on Colorado River insofar as the Court there cited the avoidance of piecemeal litigation as a factor that might favor a stay. See 424 U.S. at 819, 96 S.Ct. at 1247. That factor assumed importance in Colorado River because the litigation there involved a federal statute under which Congress had explicitly recognized the availability of state systems for the adjudication of water rights and had expressed a strong policy favoring resolution of those rights in a single, comprehensive forum. See id. at 819-20, 96 S.Ct. at 1247-48. No such policy is implicated in the case at bar, and the mere desire to resolve all issues involving related facts in one court does not justify depriving Hoai of his federal forum. As the Supreme Court has made clear,  'the pendency of an action in the state court is no bar to proceedings concerning the same matter in the Federal Court having jurisdiction....'  Colorado River, 424 U.S. at 817, 96 S.Ct. at 1246 (quoting McClellan v. Carland, 217 U.S. 268, 282, 30 S.Ct. 501, 505, 54 L.Ed. 762 (1910)). In fact, in light of the Superior Court judge's desire to separate Hoai's federal claims against Sunoco from the nonfederal dispute between Hoai and Vo, it is questionable whether judicial economy would even be served by the stay. Consequently, we find that the principles of Colorado River cannot support the stay in this case.