Opinion ID: 181092
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion to Substitute Plaintiff/Motion to Continue.

Text: At the heart of the bellwether case approach to handling complex litigation is the court's decision, reached after numerous pretrial conferences with the parties, to select particular plaintiffs' cases whose trials will furnish data that may facilitate settlement of the remaining cases. Judge Engelhardt handled this formaldehyde litigation in the standard fashion by selecting a test case against each of the four prominently involved trailer manufacturers. Of course, in each case, different subsidiary defendants, such as contractors and the United States, would also be involved, but the focus was correctly placed on an attempt to find representative plaintiffs' claims against these four major defendants. When Keystone initially suggested the Bell case as a bellwether, the plaintiff counsels' only objection was that because they were smokers, the Bells' case might not be fairly representative. The court selected Bell over the plaintiffs' alternative choice; this decision has not been challenged on appeal. Either at the time it selected the Bell case, or shortly thereafter, the court was reminded of the practicality of using the suit of an entire family as a bellwether. If one plaintiff's claim was dropped, other family member plaintiffs who had lived in the same trailer could carry on, and the target defendant could develop its case premised on one particular trailer. See Order and Reasons at 2 (RE 43). When the Bell case was selected for bellwether status in early April, Raymond Bell was on notice that he could become the named plaintiff and that his mother's case was set for trial in January 2010. This is not to say he personally contemplated the possibility of having to go to trial, but his counsel knew of the potential. Further, during the summer's trial preparation, this potential became more likely as Mrs. Bell refused to cooperate in providing evidence about herself and failed to produce her expert witness reports required by the pretrial schedule. In September, after the court granted Mrs. Bell's motion to withdraw and she dismissed her case with prejudice, the court convened counsel to address the situation. Raymond Bell's father, another resident of the trailer and plaintiff in the suit, refused to serve as the trial plaintiff. Raymond Bell then demurred with the brief motions supported only by the three reasons noted above. No affidavit was attached to the motion to substitute or continue, nor did Bell explain where he was working, why he would be unable to get time off for the trial, or exactly how his education would be disadvantaged by attendance at a trial that could last two weeks. It is not hard to justify the court's decision to deny these alternative motions. Raymond Bell's attempt to withdraw as plaintiff or to continue seemed contrived, especially in light of his mother's less than diligent prosecution of a claim bearing on the same trailer. Nothing in his motion papers distinguishes Bell's inconvenience in going forward with trial from the inconvenience that any plaintiff may suffer from having to try the case he has filed. The case had been pending for months, the parties had been actively preparing for trial, and Bell still had several months to organize his own schedule around the impending trial. The selection of a substitute bellwether plaintiff would inflict considerable inconvenience on the defendants. Not only would Keystone have to explore the condition of another trailer, but the identity and role played by subsidiary defendants would change. [3] In effect, Keystone would be defending an entirely different case without having seen a conclusion of the Bell case. If, on the other hand, a continuance was considered, Bell's reasons offered no prospect of an early reset. His fears of job loss, loss of income and educational interruption could continue indefinitely. If Bell received a continuance on these flimsy grounds, there would be little basis for denying continuance motions sought by other parties in the pending bellwether cases. The court's attempt to provide trial results that would offer a firm basis for resolution of the thousands of outstanding cases would be thwarted and unreasonably delayed by granting a continuance. The court certainly did not abuse its discretion in denying the alternative motions.