Tortola Restaurants, L.P. v. Kimberly-Clark Corp.

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO REMAND AND DENYING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO STAY

On August 29,1997, the Court heard argument on plaintiffs motion to remand and defendants’ motion for stay of proceedings. Having considered the arguments of counsel and the papers submitted, the Court hereby GRANTS plaintiffs motion and DENIES defendants’ motion

BACKGROUND

This is an action under the California Cartwright Act, California Business and Professions Code § 16720, et seq., in which plaintiff — who seeks to represent a class of those similarly situated — has alleged that the defendant paper companies conspired to fix and stabilize the price of commercial sanitary paper charged to “end-user” businesses in California. The class-action complaint was filed in San Francisco Superior Court on May 23, 1997. Several other cases against these defendants have been filed in other federal, district and state courts, and on June 19, 1997, defendants filed a motion before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation seeking, transfer of all of the federal cases to the same district court for consolidated pretrial proceedings. On June 20, 1997, defendants removed this action to federal court.…