Santa Clara Valley Water District v. 3M Company
- Nathanael Cousins
- 5:23-cv-04894
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Santa Clara Valley Water District v. 3M Company, Judge Cousins’s case was transferred by the Judicial Panel to South Carolina for coordinated pretrial proceedings.
Santa Clara Valley Water District and the defendants in its action were affected by the order transferring the case to the District of South Carolina for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings.
What happened
Santa Clara Valley Water District v. 3M Company was listed as a related action in multidistrict litigation involving aqueous film-forming foam products. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the case transferred from the Northern District of California to the District of South Carolina.
The transfer was for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings because the action appeared to share factual questions with cases already pending in that multidistrict litigation. The order did not decide the parties’ underlying claims or defenses.
The order lists Nathanael Cousins as the judge for the case, but the transfer order itself was issued by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and signed by its clerk.
The detailed version
- Santa Clara Valley Water District v. 3M Company · No. 5:23-cv-04894
- Nathanael Cousins
- Oct. 23, 2023
Background
Santa Clara Valley Water District’s action was listed as a “tag-along action” in multidistrict litigation concerning aqueous film-forming foam products. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation had previously transferred related civil actions to the District of South Carolina for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings and assigned them to Judge Richard M. Gergel.
Ruling
The Panel issued Conditional Transfer Order 154. It ordered Santa Clara Valley Water District’s action transferred under 28 U.S.C. § 1407 to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina for the same coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. The Panel stated that the action appeared to involve factual questions common to the actions previously transferred there.
The order stated that the transfer would become effective when filed with the clerk of the District of South Carolina. It also stayed transmission of the order for seven days, with the stay continuing if a party filed an opposition during that period.
Effect
The order addressed only the location and coordination of pretrial proceedings. It did not resolve the merits of Santa Clara Valley Water District’s claims, the defendants’ defenses, or any liability question. Judge Nathanael Cousins is identified in the supplied case information, while this particular transfer order was issued by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.