Calvert Fire Ins. Co. v. Will, 76-1495
| Decision Date | 19 September 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-1495,76-1495 |
| Parties | Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 96,601 CALVERT FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Honorable Hubert L. WILL, United States District Judge, Northern District of Illinois, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Michael L. Weissman, Chicago, Ill., Louis Loss, Cambridge, Mass., for petitioner.
Thomas J. Weithers, Chicago, Ill., Milton V. Freeman, Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before SWYGERT and WOOD, Circuit Judges, and GRANT, Senior District Judge. 2
In this case petitioner Calvert Fire Insurance Company ("Calvert") seeks a writ of mandamus compelling the district court to immediately adjudicate Calvert's federal securities laws claims against American Mutual Reinsurance Company even though all but one of those claims is being concurrently litigated in Illinois state court. We previously granted the writ. Calvert Fire Insurance Co. v. Will, 560 F.2d 792 (7th Cir. 1977). The Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings in conformity with its judgment. Will v. Calvert Fire Insurance Co., --- U.S. ----, 98 S.Ct. 2552, 57 L.Ed.2d 504 (1978). We now determine the proper course which this case should take on remand.
Carrying out the Supreme Court's mandate is somewhat difficult because there was no majority opinion for the Court. In order to interpret the Court's mandate correctly, it is necessary first to review the various opinions written by the Justices.
Justice Rehnquist, joined by three other members of the Court, expressed the view that the decision whether to defer to state court proceedings in a case such as this one is "largely committed to the discretion of the District Court." 98 S.Ct. at 2558. Justice Rehnquist disagreed with our conclusion that the district court was compelled to immediately adjudicate Calvert's federal claims under Colorado River Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976). He instead found persuasive the holding of Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co., 316 U.S. 491, 494, 62 S.Ct. 1173, 86 L.Ed. 1620 (1942), that district courts are "under no compulsion" to exercise their jurisdiction when the same proceedings are pending in a state court. He concluded that Calvert had not satisfied the heavy burden of showing that the district court had so clearly abused its discretion that a writ of mandamus, which is only available when "a litigant's right to a particular result is 'clear and indisputable,' " was a proper remedy. 98 S.Ct. at 2559.
Justice Brennan, joined by Chief Justice Burger and Justices Marshall and Powell, dissented and would have voted to affirm our judgment. Justice Brennan rejected Justice Rehnquist's premise that the decision whether to defer in cases of contemporaneous federal state jurisdiction lies largely with the district court; rather, he asserted, under Colorado River, the federal courts have a "virtually unflagging obligation . . . to exercise the jurisdiction given them." Id. at 2561. He argued that federal deference to contemporaneous state proceedings was only permissible under "exceptional" circumstances not present in this case. Finally, he contended that Justice Rehnquist's reliance on Brillhart was erroneous.
Justice Blackmun provided the deciding vote for reversal, but did so on grounds that were significantly different from those relied upon by Justice Rehnquist. He began his opinion by agreeing with Justice Brennan that Justice Rehnquist's reliance upon Brillhart was erroneous:
The Court's opinion, Ante, p. 2557, appears to me to indicate that it now regards as fully compatible the Court's decisions in Brillhart v. Excess Ins. Co., 316 U.S. 491, 62 S.Ct. 1173, 86 L.Ed. 1620 (1942), a diversity case, and Colorado River Water Conservation v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976), a federal issue case. I am not at all sure that this is so. I as were Mr. Justice Stewart and Mr. Justice Stevens was in dissent in Colorado River, and if the holding in that case is what I think it is, and if one assumes, as I do not, that Brillhart has any application here, the Court cut back on Mr. Justice Frankfurter's rather sweeping language in Brillhart, 316 U.S., at 494-495, 62 S.Ct. 1175-1176 (footnote omitted).
But Justice Blackmun then...
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