Golf Solutions I, LLC v. Prestige Flag Manufacturing Company, Inc.

Filing 92

ORDER denying 87 Motion to Stay and Transfer this case to California. Signed by District Judge James D. Peterson on 4/22/2015. (kwf)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

GOLF SOLUTIONS I, LLC,
Plaintiff,

OPINION & ORDER

v.
14-cv-869-jdp
PRESTIGE FLAG MANUFACTURING
COMPANY, INC. and MICHAEL L. ROBERTS
Defendants.

The parties in this case each filed mirror-image breach-of-contract actions against each
other in two federal districts: the Southern District of California and the Western District of
Wisconsin. Each party sought to dismiss or transfer the other action, hoping to proceed on one
action in its own preferred forum. Following Seventh Circuit precedent on the first-to-file rule, I
declined to transfer this case to California, and instead I invited Judge Burns to transfer the
California case to this court. Dkt. 30. As I noted in that order, either judge could hear the
parties’ dispute, but only one of us should do it.
Judge Burns has determined that the first-to-file rule as applied in the Ninth Circuit
prevents him from transferring the California case to this court. Dkt. 89-1. Defendants Prestige
Flag Manufacturing and Michael L. Roberts have informed me of Judge Burns’s opinion, and
they conclude their filing with a request that I stay and transfer this case to California. Dkt. 87.
But Judge Burns did not invite me to transfer this case to him, presumably because he has Golf
Solutions’s motion to dismiss or transfer the California case pending, with a hearing set for May
18. So it appears that the future of the California case will be in doubt for a while yet.
Accordingly, I will not transfer this case to California at this point. Should it become clear that
Judge Burns will keep the California case, I will revisit this decision.

If this case stays here, it will go to trial on December 7, 2015. There will be no stay.
Defendants’ motion, Dkt. 87, is DENIED.
Entered April 22, 2015.
BY THE COURT:
/s/
________________________________________
JAMES D. PETERSON
District Judge

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