Sierra School Equipment Company v. Lafayette Life Insurance Company ( 2024 )

1 2 3 4 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 7 8 SIERRA SCHOOL EQUIPMENT Case No. 1:23-cv-01496-JLT-CDB COMPANY, 9 ORDER ON STIPULATION Plaintiff, TRANSFERRING ACTION TO THE 10 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA v. 11 (Doc. 38) LAFAYETTE LIFE INSURANCE 12 COMPANY, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 Pending before the Court is the stipulation of Plaintiff Sierra School Equipment Company 16 and Defendants The Lafayette Life Insurance Company, Pensionlabs Incorporated and Michael 17 Holman, filed March 19, 2024, for order transferring this action to the Central District of 18 California. (Doc. 38). The parties represent that transfer is warranted given that an earlier-filed 19 action pending in that District (Anthony Di Bernardo, et al. v. The Lafayette Life Insurance 20 Company, et al., Case No. 8:23-cv-01035-FWS-KES (C.D. Cal.)) raises similar issues of law and 21 fact as alleged in the action pending before this Court. Id. 22 Under the first-to-file rule, a court may dismiss a complaint or claim that is duplicative, 23 transfer all or parts of the case to the first-filed district or stay all or parts of the case pending a 24 decision in the prior-related action. See Heinz v. Mazda Motor of America, Inc., No. 2:22-cv- 25 02058-TLN-CKD, 2023 WL 4305118, at *1 (E.D. Cal. June 30, 2023) (citing Kohn Law Grp., 26 Inc. v. Auto Parts Mfg. Miss., Inc., 787 F.3d 1237, 1239-40 (9th Cir. 2015)). 27 The Court having considered the parties’ stipulation to transfer and counsel 1 | HEREBY ORDERED: 2 1. This case shall be transferred to the Central District of California, so that it can be 3 related to the earlier-filed matter captioned Anthony Di Bernardo, et al. v. The 4 Lafayette Life Insurance Company, et al., Case No. 8:23-cv-01035-FWS-KES 5 (C.D. Cal.). © | Ir IS SO ORDERED. Dated: _ March 20, 2024 | hwrnrD RX 8 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28