Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's v. CSX Transp.
| Decision Date | 11 February 2022 |
| Docket Number | 20-cv-0795-SPM |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Illinois |
| Parties | CERTAIN UNDERWRITERS AT LLOYD'S, Plaintiffs, v. CSX TRANSPORTATION, INC., EVANSVILLE WESTERN RAILWAY, INC., and PADUCAH & LOUISVILLE RAILWAY, INC., Defendants. |
Pending before the Court are two (2) Motions for Summary Judgment filed by defendants, CSX Transportation, Inc. (“CSX”) (Doc. 239) and Evansville Western Railway, Inc. (“EVWR”) (Doc. 242), along with a Motion for Summary Judgment filed by plaintiffs, Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's (“Lloyds”) (Doc 251). For the reasons set forth below, the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part the respective motions filed by CSX EVWR, and Lloyds.
RELEVANT PROCEDURAL HISTORY[1]
On September 17, 2020, this case was assigned Track “C”, with the final pretrial conference being scheduled for February 2, 2022 and a jury trial date of February 14, 2022, albeit before the Honorable Judge J. Phil Gilbert in Benton Illinois (Doc. 75). On October 8, 2020, this case was reassigned to the Honorable Judge Stephen P. McGlynn in East St. Louis, Illinois (Doc. 78). On October 27, 2020, a telephonic scheduling conference was held and the Court accepted the proposed schedule submitted by the parties, which indicated that discovery was due by October 8, 2021 and dispositive motions were due by October 22, 2021 (Docs. 81 & 82). The Court also confirmed the previous final pretrial and jury settings; however, they were moved from the Benton Courthouse before Judge Gilbert to the East St. Louis Courthouse before Judge McGlynn (Id.). At that time, the two defendants in this case were CSX and EVWR.
On November 7, 2020, after obtaining leave of court, Lloyds filed an amended complaint, adding Paducah & Louisville Railway, Inc. as a defendant and modifying the cause of action (Doc. 84). The allegations in the amended complaint contained the following six (5) claims for relief: (1) Carrier liability pursuant to the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. § 11706 (a)); (2) Common carrier liability for violations of the Federal Bill of Lading Act (alternatively, non-delivery under 49 U.S.C. § 80110); (3) Common carrier liability for violations of the Federal Bill of Lading Act (Misdelivery/conversion under 49 U.S.C. § 80111); (4) Negligence, gross negligence, willful or wanton conduct; and, (5) Conversion (Id.).
On November 24, 2020, CSX and EVWR filed answers to Lloyds first claim for relief under the Carmack Amendment, but also filed a joint motion to dismiss the remaining counts, along with supporting memorandum of law (Docs. 91 - 94). CSX and EVWR also moved for a hearing regarding their motion to dismiss, which was ultimately set for January 6, 2021 (Docs. 95 and 102). On December 23, 2020, Lloyds filed its response in opposition to the joint motion to dismiss (Doc. 114). Between the filing of the motion to dismiss and the hearing, there were numerous filings regarding the status of discovery as well as motions to strike pleadings and affirmative defenses.
On January 6, 2021, a telephone conference was held at which time the motion to dismiss was argued and taken under advisement (Doc. 119). The parties also argued the motion to strike affirmative defenses and motion to stay answering amended complaint while motion to dismiss was pending, and Lloyds asserted objections to discovery delays (Id.). On January 8, 2021, the Court issued an Order granting defendants seven (7) days to answer the amended complaint, if ordered, following entry of ruling on motion to dismiss; ordering defendants to produce all documents constituting Bills of Lading governing this particular transaction within fourteen (14) days, up to and including January 22, 2021; and, setting this case for status conference on February 22, 2021 (Doc. 121). On January 12, 2021, while the aforementioned motion was under advisement, PAL filed its motion to dismiss and supporting memorandum of law (Docs. 122 and 123). On January 25, 2021, the Court granted the motion to dismiss, but granted Lloyds thirty (30) days, or up to February 24, 2021, to file a second amended complaint (Doc. 125).
On February 16, 2021, Lloyds filed its second amended complaint in the following six (6) claims for relief: (1) Carrier liability pursuant to the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. § 11706 (a)); (2) Common carrier liability for violations of the Common carrier liability for violations of the Federal Bill of Lading Act (Misdelivery/conversion under 49 U.S.C. § 80111); (4) Negligence, gross negligence, willful or wanton conduct; (5) Conversion; and (6) Breach of Contract to Deliver Goods (Doc. 131). Counts one through five were asserted against CSX, EVWR and PAL, while count six was brought only against PAL (Id.). Motions to dismiss ensued and this matter was set for hearing on May 20, 2021 (Doc. 165). Additionally, discovery was ongoing pursuant to the previously entered scheduling order and motions and objections to discovery were also set for hearing on May 20, 2021 (Id.).
At the May 20, 2021 hearing, this Court addressed the various discovery motions and took the motions to dismiss filed by CSX, EVWR and PAL under advisement (Doc. 168). The Court also ordered PAL to produce Tom Greene for deposition within 21 days, or by June 11, 2021 and set a briefing scheduling for supplementing arguments for and against dismissal (Id.). Of note, on June 2, 2021, the Court also reminded the parties that the final pre-trial conference remained scheduled for February 2, 2022 with a jury trial scheduled to commence on February 14, 2022 (Doc. 170).
On August 2, 2021, the Court denied the motions to dismiss filed by CSX, EVWR and PAL (Docs. 190 and 191). The Court also ordered the defendants to answer the second amended complaint by September 1, 2021 (Id.). On September 1, 2021, CSX, EVWR and PAL filed their respective answers along with affirmative defenses (Docs. 197 - 199).
On September 15, 2021, counsel filed a joint motion to amend scheduling order (Doc. 226). On that same date, said Motion was granted, pushing the fact discovery deadline to October 29, 2021 and the dispositive motion due date to November 22, 2022 (Doc. 227). However, the parties were again reminded that the pre-trial conference remained set on February 2, 2022 and the Jury Trial remained scheduled to commence on February 14, 2022 (Id.).
November 22, 2021 was the deadline for the filing of dispositive motions. Each party filed their respective motion for summary judgment; however, PAL's motion will not be addressed in this Order (Docs. 239, 242, 243 and 251).
On December 27, 2021, Lloyds filed its responses in opposition to both CSX's and EVWR's motions for summary judgment and attached exhibits (Docs. 259-265). On this same date, CSX and EVWR filed a joint opposition to Lloyds motion (Doc. 269). On January 10, 2022, CSX filed a reply in support of its motion for summary judgment (Doc. 285) and Lloyds filed objections to CSX's response in opposition of its motion (Docs. 286, 287).
On January 18, 2022, oral argument was held regarding the aforementioned motions for summary judgment (Doc. 294). Although many of the arguments were repetitive, each party was given the opportunity to argue their motion as well as respond to the other parties' arguments (Id.). Following the hearing, the motions were taken under advisement.
On January 26, 2022, the final pretrial conference scheduled for February 2, 2022 was cancelled and vacated as was the jury trial that was scheduled to commence on February 14, 2022 (Doc. 295). In the continuance Order, the Court noted that the aforementioned motions were under advisement along with six (6) other motions pending regarding potential expert witnesses (Id.). Additionally, the Southern District of Illinois moved to mandatory mediation on October 8, 2021, and the continuance would give the parties the opportunity to comply with Administrative Order 301 (SDIL-AO 301) (Id.).
STATEMENT OF FACTS[2]
In this case, Certain Underwriters at Lloyds, the insurer for National Railway Equipment (“NRE”), is seeking to recover in subrogation for the loss of four locomotives and the associated costs paid as a result of damage incurred following a train derailment that occurred near Lilesville, N.C. (Doc. 131). Following the derailment, Lloyds paid NRE $5, 840, 360.00[3], and is now seeking to recover said amount as subrogees to NRE[4] (Id.).
In September 2018, (“NRE”) had four locomotives that needed to be delivered to the Port of Wilmington, N.C. [5] (Doc. 243-1). Jay Smith, Corporate Logistics Director for NRE, arranged for the transportation and waybilled the locomotives on the EVWR portion of PALConnect (Id.). Prior to transport, Smith notified CSX that the locomotives were ready and needed inspecting[6] (Id.). Once CSX passed the units, the inspector sent the information to CSX in Jacksonville and NRE got the units ready for pick-up by EVWR (Id.).
Smith testified that the waybills, numbered 539312 to 539315, were generated by him on September 7, 2018, which is the date memorialized on each waybill[7] (Id., Tr. 39:20-22). As a “Special Instruction”, the Waybills referenced Rule 11, which Smith indicated meant that everyone that touched the unit sends a freight bill (Id., Tr. 41:23-24). In this case, as “Freight Charges” specifies, EVWR was to bill for transporting the locomotives from Mount Vernon, Illinois to Evansville, Indiana and CSX was to bill for transporting the locomotives from Evansville, Indiana to Port of Wilmington, N.C. (Id., Tr. 42).
EVWR picked up the locomotives, referenced as NREX 122, 123, 124 and 125 on the waybills, from the NRE yard in Mount Vernon Illinois and transported them to Evansville, Indiana (Doc....
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