IN RE: MONTREAL MAINE & ATLANTIC RAILWAY LTD

Filing 26

ORDER reserving ruling 8 Motion to Stay By JUDGE NANCY TORRESEN. (dfr)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MAINE

IN RE: MONTREAL MAINE AND
ATLANTIC RAILWAY, LTD.,
Debtor

)
)
) Civil no. 1:13-MC-00184-NT
)
)
)
ORDER

Before the Court is a motion to stay proceedings (ECF No. 8) filed by
representatives of the estates of victims (the “Wrongful Death Claimants”) of an
explosion in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec from the derailment of a train operated by
Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway, Ltd. (the “Debtor”). For the reasons that
follow, the Court reserves ruling on the motion to stay, and orders the Wrongful
Death Claimants to file their response, if any, to the motion to transfer (ECF No. 1)
within two weeks from the date of this order.
The Debtor filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the
bankruptcy code on August 7, 2013 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the
District of Maine, docket number 13-10670.1 On August 21, 2013, the United States
Trustee appointed a Chapter 11 trustee, (the “Trustee”), to serve in the case
pursuant to section 1163 of the bankruptcy code. 11 U.S.C. § 1163. On September
13, 2013, the Trustee opened a miscellaneous matter in this Court with the filing of
a motion to transfer to this Court the Wrongful Death Claimants’ personal injury
United States district courts have original jurisdiction of all cases arising under the
Bankruptcy Code. See 28 U.S.C. § 1334. The United States District Court for the District of Maine
refers all bankruptcy cases to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine. See 28
U.S.C. § 157(a) and D. Me. R. 83.6(a).
1

cases currently pending in Illinois. The Wrongful Death Claimants’ response to this
motion was due on October 11, 2013, but on this date the Wrongful Death
Claimants filed the instant motion to stay rather than any opposition to the
underlying motion to transfer.
This Court “enjoys inherent power to ‘control the disposition of the causes on
its docket with economy of time and effort for itself, for counsel, and for litigants.’”
City Of Bangor v. Citizens Commc’ns Co., 532 F.3d 70, 99 (1st Cir. 2008) (quoting
Landis v. N. Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936). This includes the power to stay a
case. Taunton Gardens Co. v. Hills, 557 F.2d 877, 879 (1st Cir. 1977). The Court is
unprepared to weigh the competing interests at issue without the benefit of the
Wrongful Death Claimants’ response to the underling motion to transfer. It
therefore reserves ruling on the Wrongful Death Claimants’ motion to stay, which it
will review upon completion of the briefing on the Trustee’s motion to stay. The
Wrongful Death Claimants are hereby ORDERED to file their response, if any, to
the Trustee’s motion to stay no later than Monday, November 18, 2013.
SO ORDERED.
/s/ Nancy Torresen
United States District Judge
Dated this 4th day of November, 2013.