Asbestos Firm Facing Racketeering Lawsuit Drops Case Against Accuser
A Dallas asbestos firm facing a racketeering lawsuit has given up on its own case against John Crane Inc., with a California federal judge dismissing the firm’s suit in an order last week.
Judge Consuelo B. Marshall for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in her two-page order Thursday, said the plaintiff, Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett PC, failed to file an amended complaint.
Mark Behrens – a partner at Washington, D.C., law firm Shook Hardy & Bacon who is co-chair of the firm’s public policy group – said Simon Greenstone’s filing in the Los Angeles federal court was nothing but an attempt at forum-shopping.
“The court rejected it,” Behrens said in an email to Legal Newsline. “Now the firm will have to defend the RICO claim against it in Illinois district court.”
He noted, “Any appeal by the firm would be heard by a potentially less favorable federal appellate court.”
On Aug. 26, Marshall issued an order granting JCI’s motion to dismiss, dismissing without leave to amend Simon Greenstone’s claims under the Declaratory Judgment Act and dismissing with leave to amend its breach-of-contract claim. Simon Greenstone did not amend that claim.
On Oct. 11, the parties filed a joint request for judgment, requesting Marshall enter judgment. She denied the request because there was no final decision on the merits, and issued an Order to Show Cause why the action should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute.
Post written by Jessica Karmasek