Luis Antonio Aguilar Marquinez v. Dole Food Company Inc ( 2018 )

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
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No. 14-4245
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LUIS ANTONIO AGUILAR MARQUINEZ, et al.
v.
DOLE FOOD COMPANY INC., et al.
Luis Antonio Aguilar Marquinez, et al., Appellants
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On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Delaware
(D.C. No. 1-12-cv-00695)
District Judge: Honorable Leonard P. Stark
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Submitted Under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
March 9, 2017
Before: HARDIMAN and KRAUSE, Circuit Judges, and STENGEL,* District Judge.
(Filed: May 29, 2018)
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ORDER
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In this appeal from a judgment entered by the United States District Court for the
District of Delaware (Stark, J.), the panel (Hardiman, Krause, and Stengel, JJ.) certified a
* The Honorable Lawrence F. Stengel, United States District Judge for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation.
question of law to the Delaware Supreme Court pursuant to Third Circuit Local Appellate
Rule Misc. 110.1. The Delaware Supreme Court accepted certification and issued an
opinion holding that under Delaware law, the dismissal of Plaintiffs’ claims in 1995 by
the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Delgado v. Shell Oil Co., 890
F. Supp. 1324, 1375 (S.D. Tex. 1995), did not end the tolling of the Delaware statute of
limitations on personal injury actions, 10 Del. C. § 8119. See Marquinez v. Dow Chem.
Co., A.3d, No. 231, 2017, 2018 WL 1324178, at *1 (Del. Mar. 15, 2018). The opinion of
the Delaware Supreme Court requires us to vacate the summary judgment that had been
entered in favor of Defendants.
While this appeal was pending, this Court decided a related case, Chavez v. Dole
Food Co., 836 F.3d 205 (3d Cir. 2016) (en banc). There, we held that the District Court
had erred in dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims in that case on first-filed grounds under
circumstances materially identical to those in which it dismissed the claims of fourteen
plaintiffs in this case on September 19, 2013. In light of Chavez, the District Court’s
dismissal order was erroneous.
Upon consideration of the record before us, the Delaware Supreme Court’s
opinion in Marquinez, and this Court’s opinion in Chavez,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the District Court’s orders entered September 19,
2013, and May 27, 2014, and its final judgment entered September 22, 2014, are
VACATED.
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IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this appeal is REMANDED to the District Court
for further proceedings consistent with the Delaware Supreme Court’s opinion in
Marquinez and this Court’s opinion in Chavez.
BY THE COURT:
/s/ Thomas M. Hardiman
Circuit Judge
Dated: May 29, 2018
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