White Motor Corp., Debtor, In re
| Decision Date | 29 November 1988 |
| Docket Number | 86-3594 and 86-3726,No. 86-3579,86-3579 |
| Citation | 863 F.2d 50 |
| Parties | Unpublished Disposition NOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit. In re WHITE MOTOR CORPORATION, Debtor, John T. GRIGSBY, Jr., Trustee, Defendants-Appellants, v. Donna Lee CREWS, and the Timken Company, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Before BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., NATHANIEL R. JONES and BOGGS, Circuit Judges.
This case arose out of a Missouri personal injury action against White Motor Corporation (White), based on a 1978 accident. Ultimately, further proceedings in the action were stayed as a result of the automatic stay granted upon White's filing for bankruptcy in the Northern District of Ohio in 1980.
As part of the ongoing proceedings to conclude the bankruptcy case, the district court, by order entered February 17, 1984, allowed personal injury suits against White to go forward in whatever court they were pending. The court ordered that suits already commenced could proceed, and that suits not yet commenced could be filed within 30 days of her order. The Crews family did not file a new action, believing it had already "commenced" an action. The bankruptcy court held, and the district court affirmed, that no action had been commenced because the automatic stay was entered before their case was refiled after a dismissal for improper venue.
In the instant case, the parties differed over whether this case had been "commenced" for either state law or bankruptcy law purposes. However, that is not what is at issue here. What is at issue is the interpretation of the district court's order. Since we find that the order can be construed to allow this case to proceed in state court, and since no prejudice to the defendant, nor to the policy embodied in the order, can be discerned from allowing the case to proceed in the state courts, we reverse the decision below and remand to allow the case to go forward in the Missouri courts. 1
I
The Crews family sued White based on the death of Donald Crews, a truck driver, while driving a White truck. The original Missouri action was filed in St. Louis in October 1979, but was ultimately dismissed without prejudice because of improper venue. On September 23, 1980, an action was brought in Kansas City, in the proper Missouri court. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, however, White had filed a petition under Chapter 11 on September 4, 1980, thus automatically staying the filing of any new action or any proceedings in any existing action. 11 U.S.C. Sec. 362. Matters rested there for more than 3 years, until the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, on February 23, 1984, entered an order permitting stayed cases based on product liability (the theory of the Crews's claim) to proceed in their respective courts. The key language of that order allowed already commenced actions to proceed and allowed new actions to be filed within 30 days:
(1) The automatic stay ... having terminated, ... product liability cases may be resumed or continued in the appropriate state and federal courts, subject to the following restrictions:
(a) Within the limitations of the relevant state law, these actions may proceed to trial
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(b) ....
(c) ....
(2) Within the limitations of the relevant state and federal law, a party who has filed ... a timely proof of claim ... but who has not commenced a civil action against White ... may do so in a state or federal court of appropriate jurisdiction within thirty (30) days of...
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