In re Asbestos Litigation Cases ( 2020 )

06/17/2020
Amy Eddy, Asbestos Claims Court Judge
Department No. 1 Case Number: AC 17-0694
Flathead County Justice Center
920 South Main Street, Suite 310
Kalispell, Montana 59901
(406) 758-5906
IN THE ASBESTOS CLAIMS COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA
IN RE ASBESTOS LITIGATION, Cause No. AC 17-0694
Consolidated Cases.
ORDER RE: CASE REASSIGNMENT
Effective June 22, 2020, in order to better manage and conduct the business of the
Asbestos Claims Court, the Court hereby rules as follows:
(1) Individual district court cases within the jurisdiction of the Asbestos Claims Court
are to be migrated into a separate database within FullCourt, which shall be
referred to as the Twenty-Third Judicial District. The Cascade County Clerk of
District Court is authorized as the Clerk of Court for this database with all
statutory authority to manage this database as (s)he would the Montana Eighth
Judicial District Court. This includes the authority to establish a separate bank
account to collect and deposit fees.
(2) Within their individual judicial districts, the Clerks of District Court are directed
to change the case status of all Asbestos Claims Court cases to CLOSED after the
cases are migrated into the new database to prevent duplicative reporting and
tracking.
(3) By order of the Montana Supreme Court, Judges Eddy, Cuffe, Kutzman,
McMahon, Oldenburg, Parker, Pinski and Wilson are the designated Asbestos
Claims Court Judges. These judges will maintain jurisdiction over their current
Asbestos Claims Court cases filed in their respective counties. The balance of the
remaining, current Asbestos Claims Court cases filed in Cascade County, or other
counties where there is not a designated Asbestos Claims Court judge, will then
be randomly reassigned to Judges Eddy, Cuffe, McMahon, Oldenburg and
Wilson.
(4) All new Asbestos Claims Court cases will be filed in the new Twenty-Third
Judicial District and be randomly reassigned to one of the Asbestos Claims Court
judges.
(5) When these cases are reassigned, the parties will have their customary right of
substitution under Mont. Code Ann. §3-1-804. If a party files a Motion to
Substitute Judge, the case will be randomly reassigned to one of the other
Asbestos Claims Court judges.
(6) The Court will enter a separate order regarding the cases currently set on the
deferred docket.
DATED 6/17/2020 AND ELECTRONICALLY SIGNED AS NOTED BELOW.
/s/ Amy Eddy
_________________________________
Asbestos Claims Court Judge