Scottsdale Insurance Company v. the Soni Law Firm

MEMORANDUM

Scottsdale Insurance Company (“Scottsdale”) filed this statutory interpleader ac tion against the Soni Law Firm (“Soni”), the Milton H. Greene Archives, Inc. (“the Archives”), and VNU Business Media, Inc. (“VNU”). Soni moved to stay or to dismiss the interpleader in light of then-pending parallel state proceedings. The district court denied the motion. The court later entered its findings and concluded that VNU’s lien and Scottsdale’s equitable right of offset both had priority over Soni’s attorney’s lien. Soni timely appealed. We affirm.

I

The district court’s refusal to abstain under Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States, 424 U.S. 800 , 96 S.Ct. 1236 , 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976), was not an abuse of discretion. Exceptional circumstances did not exist to relieve the district court of its “virtually unflagging obligation” to adjudicate Scottsdale’s claims. Id. at 813, 817 , 96 S.Ct. 1236 .

II

The district court’s conclusion that VNU’s lien has priority over Soni’s was not error. The first-in-time rule apples only when “[ojther things [are] equal.” Cal. Civ.Code § 2897. The district court properly analyzed “whether the equities of the lienholders…