Faulk v. Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp., 1:99CV180 (TH).
| Decision Date | 26 May 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:99CV180 (TH).,1:99CV180 (TH). |
| Citation | 48 F.Supp.2d 653 |
| Parties | Larry FAULK, et al., Plaintiffs, v. OWENS-CORNING FIBERGLASS Corp., et al., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas |
Christopher Matthew Parks, Parker, Parks & Rosenthal, Port Arthur, TX, for Plaintiffs.
Walter Clay Cooke, Kenneth S. Wall, Brown McCarroll & Oaks Hartline, Houston, TX, Thomas John Ward, Brown McCarroll & Oaks Hartline, Longview, TX, for Anchor Packing Company, Garlock Inc., defendants.
David A. Livingston, Livingston & Miller, Houston, TX, for Aqua-Chem Inc., defendant.
Gary Dale Elliston, DeHay & Elliston, Dallas, TX, for T & N PIC., A.P. Green Industries Inc., Armstrong World Industries Inc., Asbestos Claims Management Corp., Certainteed Corp., Dana Corp., Flexitallic Inc., Riley Stoker Corp., Turner & Newell PLC, Union Carbide Corp., U.S. Gypsum Co., Flexitalic Gasket Co. Inc., Quigley Company Inc., defendants.
Mel Bailey, DeHay & Elliston, Dallas, TX, for Georgia-Pacific Corp, United States Mineral Products Company, defendant.
Phillip Samuel Brown, Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman Dicker, Dallas, TX, for Brown & Root Inc., defendant.
Edward Morgan Carstarphen, III, Douglas B. Dougherty, Gary Joe Ellis, Woodard Hall & Primm, Houston, TX, for Monsanto Company, defendant.
James H. Chesnutt, II, Orgain Bell & Tucker, Beaumont, TX, for Entergy Gulf States Inc., defendant.
Sandra French Clark, Keith William Foley, Mehaffy & Weber, Beaumont, TX, for W R Grace & Co-Conn, Davidson Chemical Corp., defendants.
Thomas F. Dougall, Bowers Orr & Dougall, Columbia, SC, for Proko Industries Inc., defendant.
Kurt D. Groten, Darlea Stanly Feldt, Wesley Paul Link, Phillips & Akers, Houston, TX, for Uniroyal Holding Inc., defendant.
William Miller Thomas, Fairchild Price Thomas & Haley, Center, TX, David Jonathan Fisher, Fairchild Price Thomas & Haley, LLP, Center, TX, for J T Thorpe Company, defendant.
Gene M. Williams, Keith William Foley, Mehaffy & Weber, Beaumont, TX, for General Electric, defendant.
Sharla Jo Frost, James Hayes Powers, Gwendolyn Sue Frost, Powers & Frost, Houston, TX, for Pittsburgh Corning Corporation, defendant.
Thomas Wilson Taylor, Andrews & Kurth, Houston, TX, Alexis Juan Gomez, Andrews & Kurth LLP, Houston, TX, for Rapid-American Corporation, fka Glen Alden Corporation, Rapid American Corporation, BP Oil Company, defendants.
Rob L. Wiley, John L. Hill, Jr., Richard Harry Callison, Locke Liddell & Sapp, Houston, TX, John Baxter Hall, Liddell Sapp Zivley Hill & LaBoon LLP, Houston, TX, for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, defendant.
Frank G. Harmon, III, Crain Caton & James, Houston, TX, for Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc, defendant.
James Mayer Harris, Jr., Holmes & Harris, Beaumont, TX, for Flintkote Company, defendant.
Kathryn Oakes Hermes, DeHay & Elliston, Dallas, TX, for Synkloid Company, defendant.
Gail Cucancic Jenkins, Jenkins Grove & Martin, Beaumont, TX, for Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation, defendant.
D. Allan Jones, Orgain Bell & Tucker, Beaumont, TX, for Arco Chemical Company, nka, Lyondell Chemical Worldwide Inc., Atlantic Richfield Co., Hercules Inc., Temple Eastex, Temple-Inland Forest Products Inc., Temple Inland Inc., Quigley Company Inc., defendants.
George Jerome Kacal, Jr., Dunn Kacal Adams Pappas & Law, Houston, TX, for A C & S Inc., defendant.
Mark Reese Pharr, III, Mary Mauro, Galloway Johnson Tompkins & Burr, Houston, TX, for Combustion Engineering Inc., defendant.
Debra S. Fitzgerald, Kim M. Meaders, Crouch & Hallett, Dallas, TX, for North American Refractories Company, defendant.
Peter A. Moir, Baker & Botts, Dallas, TX, for Owens-Illinois Inc., defendant.
John Jeffrey Mundy, Austin Patrick Tighe, Michael Singley, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, Austin, TX, for Owens-Corning Fibreglas Corporation, defendant.
John W. Newton, III, Orgain Bell & Tucker, Beaumont, TX, for General Motors Corporation, Navistar International Transportation Corp., defendants.
Franklin Albright Poff, Jr., Crisp Jordan & Boyd, Texarkana, TX, for General Refractories Company, defendant.
B. Stephen Rice, Hays McConn Rice & Pickering, Houston, TX, for Conoco Inc., Ethyl Corporation, Rohn & Haas Texas Inc., Shell Oil Co., Rohm & Haas Bayport Inc., Star Enterprise, Phillips Chemical Co., Texaco Chemical Co., Texaco, Inc., defendants.
James Michael Riley, Jr., Lawrence A. Lynn, Coats Rose Yale Holm Ryman & Lee, Houston, TX, for Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation, defendant.
H. Daniel Spain, Spain & Hastings, Houston, TX, for Harbison-Walker Refractories Company, Formerly a Division of Indresco Inc., defendant.
Kenneth S. Wall, Bill Duane Fountain, Todd Wade, Brown McCarroll & Oaks Hartline, Houston, TX, for Kelly-Moore Paint Company Inc., defendant.
R. Mark Willingham, Fairchild Price Thomas Haley & Willingham, Houston, TX, for Asten Group Incorporated, defendant.
Tori Smith Levine, Brown McCarroll & Oaks Hartline, Dallas, TX, for A M F Incorporated, defendant.
George Shipley, Baker & Botts, Houston, TX, for American Cyanamid Company, BASF Corp., Crown Central Petroleum Corp., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Marathon Oil Co., Houston Lighting and Power Co., Sun Pipeline Co., Pure Oil Corp., Union Oil Co. of Cal., Velsicol Chemical Corp., Sun Company Inc., defendants.
Donald E. Godwin, Godwin & Carlton, Dallas, TX, for SSER Industries Inc., defendant.
Mark A. Freeman, Stevens Baldo & Freeman LLP, Beaumont, TX, for Keystone Shipping Company, American Trading & Production Corp., Keystone Thaneship Corp., defendants.
Robert Odell Lamb, Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons, Dallas, TX, for Royal
Insurance Company of America, defendant.
John Emory Pipkin, Houston, TX, for Rubber Manufacturers Association, defendant.
Deborah S. Coldwell, Strasburger & Price, Dallas, TX, for Travelers Insurance Company, defendant.
Michael Ray Walzel, Stevens Baldo & Freeman LLP, Beaumont, TX, for Triplex Inc., defendant.
Kurt Christopher Kern, R. Michele Sowers, Hartline Dacus Dreyer & Kern, Dallas, TX, for Honda North America Inc., defendant.
Timothy R. Bersch, Gilpin Paxson & Bersch, Houston, TX, for Sabaru of America Inc., Volkswagon of North America, defendant.
Arthur Ray Almquist, Mehaffy & Weber, Houston, TX, for Ameripol-Synpol Corporation, B F Goodrich Co., Dow Chemical Co., defendants.
Thomas Wilson Taylor, Andrews & Kurtch, Houston, TX, for Amoco Chemical Company, Ration, Amoco Oil Company, defendants.
Reid Hardin Erwin, Jr, Matthiesen Chase & Erwin, Houston, TX, for Armco Inc., defendant.
David W. Ledyard, Strong Pipkin Nelson & Bissell, Beaumont, TX, for Chevron USA Inc., Exxon Corporation, Gulf Oil Corporation, Occidental Chemicals Corporation, Oxy USA Inc., Chevron Chemical Company, Cities Service Oil & Gas Corporation, Candianoxy Offshore Production Company, defendants.
Ellen B. Malow, Angela Rae Hoyt, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP, Houston, TX, for Hoechst Celanese Chemical Group Inc., defendant.
Robert L. Adams, Dunn, Kacal, Adams, Pappas & Law, Houston, TX, for PPG Industries Inc., defendant.
Lauren M. Robbins, Benckenstein & Oxford LLP, Houston, TX, for United States Steel Corporation, defendant.
David M. Taylor, Kevin Barber Brown, Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons, Dallas, TX, William Carroll Book, Jr., Raymond T. Matthews, Houston, TX, for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, aka "3M", defendant.
Before this Court is Plaintiffs' Motion to Remand [7]. Having considered the motion, the numerous responses, the supplemental briefs, and the arguments of counsel at a May 11, 1999 hearing, this Court finds it lacks subject matter jurisdiction in the above-entitled cause of action. Accordingly, this Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Motion to Remand [7] and under Title 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c) REMANDS this case to the 172nd Judicial District Court for Jefferson County, Texas from whence it improperly came.
On April 1, 1999 Defendants in the above-entitled action removed this case from the 172nd Judicial District Court for Jefferson County, Texas. A companion case — VanOuwerkerk, et al. v. AcandS, et al. (1:99-cv-179) — was also removed on that same date.1 Both of these cases are asbestos cases; and in both cases Plaintiffs filed motions to remand. However, on May 3, 1999 the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation entered its Conditional Transfer Order 149 ("CTO-149") conditionally transferring both of these cases (the "'179 and '180 cases") to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Honorable Charles Weiner presiding.2
On April 26, 1999, the Honorable Howell Cobb recused himself from the '179 VanOuwerkerk case. Two days later, on April 28, 1999, this Court was assigned that '179 case. On May 7, 1999, the Honorable Richard Schell recused himself from this case — the '180 Faulk case. On the same day — May 7, 1999 — this Court was assigned this case — the '180 case. At first, this Court was unable to locate either of these files in their entirety.3 Although this Court's (occasionally) trusty law clerk was able to track down the bulk of the '180 copy file, the '179 copy file eluded this Court until May 20, 1999. Nonetheless, recognizing the shrinking time period set by the MDL's Conditional Order of Transfer 149, this Court set Plaintiff's Motion to Remand for hearing on May 10, 1999.4
Plaintiffs' Third Amended Petition alleges that Plaintiffs were exposed to asbestos at various facilities owned or operated by the Defendants "in Texas ... and Louisiana." Plaintiffs' Third Amended Petition 29. "From 1936 and extending up until the present time or until their deaths, Plaintiff craftsmen worked as construction tradesmen at the refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities of the premises Defendants ..." Id. Plaintiffs seek relief from the Defendants under the Texas common law of negligence and gross negligence —...
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