Court Opinion

ID: 9618453
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:12:46.986754+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:37:07.150939
License: Public Domain

FERGUSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
This case concerns a district court’s efforts to promote judicial economy and counter an apparent attempt at forum-shopping. Despite our appreciation of the district court’s position and our frustration with the plaintiffs strategy, we are, as the majority explains, forced to reverse the decision below. I write separately to clarify what I understand to be the doctrinal conundrum before us. Ultimately, the problem of duplicative litigation will require legislative redress.
Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 43-44, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), re-fleets a “longstanding public policy against federal court interference with ... state functions.” I agree with the majority that the principles of Younger do not apply to this case, where the only remaining claim in the federal forum concerns collection on a loan. However, in my view, our consideration of the duplicative state and federal proceedings would be incomplete without discussion of Colorado River Water Conserv. Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 817-19, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976), which provides the only abstention-like1 doctrine founded primarily on the interest of judicial economy. See James C. Rehnquist, Taking Comity Seriously: How to Neutralize the Abstention Doctrine, 46 Stan. L. Rev. 1049, 1092 (1994); Rex E. Lee & Richard G. Wilkins, An Analysis of Supplemental Jurisdiction and Abstention with Recommendations for Legislative Action, 1990 BYU L. Rev. 321, 356-57 (1990).
Colorado River held that, even where a “case falls within none of the abstention categories, there are principles unrelated to considerations of proper constitutional adjudication and regard for federal-state relations which govern in situations involving the contemporaneous exercise of concurrent jurisdictions, either by federal courts or by state and federal courts. These principles rest on considerations of wise judicial administration, giving regard to conservation of judicial resources and comprehensive disposition of litigation.” 424 U.S. at 817, 96 S.Ct. 1236 (internal punctuation omitted) (quoting Kerotest Mfg. Co. v. C-O-Two Fire Equip. Co., 342 U.S. 180, 183, 72 S.Ct. 219, 96 L.Ed. 200 (1952)).
*1155Colorado River enumerated four factors that courts may consider in determining whether “considerations of wise judicial administration” outweigh the duty to exercise federal jurisdiction: (1) whether the state court was the first to assume jurisdiction over a property; (2) the relative inconvenience of the federal forum; (3) the desirability of avoiding piecemeal litigation; and (4) the order in which the courts obtained jurisdiction. 424 U.S. at 818, 96 S.Ct. 1236. In Moses Cone, 460 U.S. at 23, 103 S.Ct. 927, the Supreme Court added two more considerations: (5) whether federal law provides the rule of decision on the merits; and (6) whether the state court proceeding can adequately address the rights of the federal plaintiff. Our circuit has also added — and repeatedly emphasized — another factor: (7) whether the exercise of jurisdiction would encourage forum-shopping. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co. v. Quackenbush, 87 F.3d 290, 297 (9th Cir.1996); see, e.g., Holder, 305 F.3d at 870, 871; Nakash v. Marciano, 882 F.2d 1411, 1417 (9th Cir.1989).
These factors appear to weigh against the exercise of federal jurisdiction in the case before us, but the Supreme Court’s strict interpretation of Colorado River makes clear that the current doctrine cannot solve the problem we face. See Moses Cone, 460 U.S. at 25-26, 103 S.Ct. 927 (“[W]e emphasize that our task ... is not to find some substantial reason for the exercise of federal jurisdiction by the district court; rather, the task is to ascertain whether there exist ‘exceptional’ circumstances, the ‘clearest of justifications,’ that can suffice under Colorado River to justify the surrender of that jurisdiction.”). “The issue ... is not simply whether state court is a ‘better’ forum” to resolve the issues pending before the federal court. Travelers Indem. Co. v. Madonna, 914 F.2d 1364, 1369 (9th Cir.1990). Colorado River applies only in “exceptional cases,” and such cases are “exceedingly rare.” Smith v. Cent. Ariz. Water Conserv. Dist., 418 F.3d 1028, 1033 (9th Cir.2005). “[T]he [general] rule [remains] that the pendency of an action in the state court is no bar to proceedings concerning the same matter in the [fjederal court having jurisdiction.” Colorado River, 424 U.S. at 817, 96 S.Ct. 1236 (quotation and internal punctuation omitted). Because the case before the panel presents an ordinary contract dispute, I do not believe that Colorado River permits the district court to decline to exercise jurisdiction. See Travelers Indemn., 914 F.2d at 1369 (stay vacated where “ordinary contract and tort issues”); Neuchatel Swiss Gen’l Ins. Co. v. Lufthansa Airlines, 925 F.2d 1193, 1195 (9th Cir.1991) (stay vacated where “unexceptional commercial dispute”); but see Nakash, 882 F.2d at 1415 (affirming stay in trademark case); id. (stating that the language of “exceptional circumstances” and a “virtually unflagging obligation” “somewhat overstates the law”).
Nonetheless, I question whether this outcome serves the principles underlying Colorado River. The Supreme Court’s decision was based on “considerations of wise judicial administration, giving regard to conservation of judicial resources and comprehensive disposition of litigation.” 424 U.S. at 817, 96 S.Ct. 1236. I appreciate the strict requirement that federal courts exercise their jurisdiction in federal question jurisdiction cases but am unconvinced of the value of this approach in diversity matters, particularly where a state suit was filed prior to a federal action.
Colorado River highlighted the factor of which court was first in time. Id. at 818, 96 S.Ct. 1236. More recently, Moses Cone, 460 U.S. at 23-25, 103 S.Ct. 927, emphasized the significance of whether federal law provides the rule of decision on the merits. In my view, where a nearly *1156identical case is already pending in state court and there is clearly no federal question before the federal court, the latter forum should be permitted to stay its proceeding pending the outcome of the state suit.
The procedural history of the instant matter provides just one example of the problems that remain unresolvable within our current statutory scheme. Roden filed a state action against Amerisource-Bergen’s predecessor in 1995. Five years later, after settlement and an appeals process, AmerisourceBergen attempted to remove the proceeding to federal court, alleging federal question jurisdiction. Finding no federal law claim, the district court remanded the action to the state forum. AmerisourceBergen responded by initiating this federal lawsuit, which the district court then dismissed on the ground of Younger abstention.
The timing of these lawsuits makes us particularly sympathetic to the judicial economy concerns prioritized by the district court. I note that we could affirm the district court’s decision to defer to the forum where the first suit was filed if that first court had been a federal court. When two cases involving the same parties and issues are filed in two different federal districts, the first-to-file rule permits the second district court to exercise its discretion to transfer, stay, or dismiss the second suit in the interests of efficiency and judicial economy. Cedars-Sinai Med. Ctr. v. Shalala, 125 F.3d 765, 769 (9th Cir.1997).
Awkwardly, it is only because the court presiding over Roden’s lawsuit is a state court that we do not permit deference to it. Our reason is federal courts’ “virtually unflagging obligation to exercise the jurisdiction given them.” Holder, 305 F.3d at 867 (quoting Colorado River, 424 U.S. at 817, 96 S.Ct. 1236). In the context of diversity cases such as this one, however, perhaps the obligation should be redefined.
As we recognized almost three decades ago,
The need for fashioning a flexible response to the issue of concurrent jurisdiction has become more pressing in this day of increasingly crowded federal dockets.... [IJncreasing calendar congestion in the federal courts makes it imperative to avoid concurrent litigation in more than one forum whenever consistent with the rights of the parties. A court may choose not to exercise its jurisdiction when another court having jurisdiction over the same matter has entertained it and can achieve the same result.
Church of Scientology of Cal. v. U.S. Dep’t of Army, 611 F.2d 738, 750 (9th Cir.1979) (quotation and internal punctuation omitted). That rationale applies today with equal, if not greater, force.
The majority is correct that current abstention doctrine mandates a reversal, but this case presents a problem that requires a larger solution. Although the Colorado River doctrine does not provide a basis for the dismissal below, its underlying principle of wise judicial administration counsels in favor of permitting a stay. The first-to-file rule, crafted in the interest of judicial economy, allows a federal district court to stay a proceeding where another matter involving the same issues and parties is already pending before a different district court. Similarly, where the first suit was filed in a state court and the second suit is a diversity jurisdiction case with no federal question at issue, I believe the federal court should maintain the discretion to stay its proceeding pending the outcome in the state forum. Absent legislation to that effect, however, I must concur.