Ahern Rentals, Inc. v. Schreiner

Background

Ahern Rentals, Inc. asked the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to vacate, or undo, its conditional transfer of the Northern District of California action involving Tom Schreiner. Defendants opposed the request. The opinion states that Ahern alleged Schreiner, a former Ahern employee and current EquipmentShare employee, took Ahern’s confidential, proprietary, and trade-secret information and used it to solicit Ahern’s customers.

The panel also considered a separate action in the Eastern District of Missouri involving EZ Equipment Zone LLC and EquipmentShare.com Inc. Ahern alleged that EquipmentShare improperly solicited Ahern’s employees and customers, took Ahern’s trade secrets and confidential information, and provided that information to EZ Equipment. The panel treated both actions as related to other cases concerning an alleged nationwide scheme involving Ahern, EquipmentShare, and trade-secret information.

Reasoning

The panel concluded that the actions involved common factual questions and that transfer would promote convenience, efficiency, and fair handling of the litigation. It rejected Ahern’s arguments that the Schreiner action was different because it did not name EquipmentShare as a defendant and because Schreiner’s alleged conduct was unique. The panel stated that a transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 does not require every case to involve exactly the same parties.

The panel also concluded that transferring the EZ Equipment action would avoid duplicating discovery concerning EquipmentShare’s alleged plan and its relationship with EZ Equipment. It was not persuaded that the different procedural postures would create enough delay or inefficiency to prevent transfer. Finally, it stated that any challenge to removal or federal jurisdiction could be presented to the judge receiving the transferred case.

Disposition

The panel ordered the actions listed on Schedule A transferred to the Western District of Missouri and, with that court’s consent, assigned to Judge Beth Phillips for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. The listed actions included Ahern Rentals, Inc. v. Schreiner, No. 3:20-06750, and the Eastern District of Missouri action involving EquipmentShare.com Inc. and others. The order did not decide the merits of Ahern’s trade-secret allegations or the remand issue. The docket identifies Judge Richard Seeborg, but the transfer order itself was issued by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.