Sandefur v. First Horizon Home Loans et al

Filing 40

ORDER GRANTING 9 Motion to Stay. FURTHER ORD that all proceedings in this case are STAYED pending Judge Teilborg's order to remand defendants and claims back to this court. Signed by Judge Larry R. Hicks on 7/7/2010. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - DRM)

Sandefur v. First Horizon Home Loans et al

Doc. 40

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 7 8 NELSON SANDEFUR, JR. 9 Plaintiff, 10 v. 11 FIRST HORIZON HOME LOANS; et al., 12 Defendants. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
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3:10-cv-0252-LRH-VPC ORDER

Before the court is defendant Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.'s ("MERS") motion to stay the proceedings pending the decision of transfer by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Doc. #9.1 I. Facts and Background In 2009, the United States Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation ("panel") consolidated numerous cases in which plaintiffs allege that MERS engaged in improper business practices when processing home loans. The panel assigned Judge James A. Teilborg in the District of Arizona to oversee these cases, and he will preside over all issues (discovery, dispositive motions, settlement) except for trials. In re: Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) Litigation, MDL No. 2119. In its decision to create this MDL litigation, the Panel consolidated nine cases from Nevada, but noted that additional "tag-along" cases with similar factual issues could be added to the list of

Refers to the court's docket entry number.

Dockets.Justia.com

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consolidated cases. Following the panel's decision, MERS moved to add numerous "tag-along" cases to the MDL, one of which is the current matter Sandefur v. First Horizon Home Loans, et al., 3:10-cv-0252-LRH-VPC. The panel ruled on MERS's tag-along motion on June 17, 2010, through an order which was filed on July 2, 2010. Doc. #32. The panel granted MERS' request to add the present case to the pending multi-district litigation, but only as to those individual claims that "relate to the formation and/or operation of MERS." The Panel further indicated that "all claims in these actions that are unrelated to the formation and/or operation of the MERS system are separately and simultaneously remanded" to the district court in which they were first brought. Id. II. Discussion In the present matter, MERS filed a motion to stay the proceedings until the panel issued an order on MERS's tag-along motions and determined whether the present matter would be consolidated. The panel has already issued an order transferring this matter to MDL thereby alleviating MERS's expressed need for a stay as illuminated in the present motion. However, the court notes that MERS and the many individual plaintiffs in the tag-along cases have filed motions with Judge Teilborg in which they dispute which claims should be part of the MDL and which should be remanded to their original district. Judge Teilborg will be deciding these issues once the matter is fully briefed. Because of the high volume of cases involved in these motions, it will be a number of months until Judge Teilborg has ruled on all of the issues affecting this case. Thus the court finds that moving forward with the present matter would be improper until it is determined which defendants and claims are to be remanded to this court. Accordingly, the court hereby stays all proceedings in this case until Judge Teilborg's ruling. \\\ \\\ \\\ 2

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IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that defendant's motion to stay (Doc. #9) is GRANTED. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that all proceedings in this case are STAYED pending Judge Teilborg's order to remand defendants and claims back to this court. IT IS SO ORDERED. DATED this 7th day of July, 2010.

__________________________________ LARRY R. HICKS UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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