Magistrate Judge Randolph Treece
Plaintiffs alleged Prospect Mortgage violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. Plaintiffs were originally opt-in plaintiffs in Sliger v. Prospect Mortgage, a California federal case decertified as a collective action. As a result of Sliger’s decertification 243 opt-in plaintiffs filed claims against Prospect in 37 different district courts. On Aug. 16 Prospect moved under 28 USC §1407 to stay plaintiffs’ action pending transfer of all 243 actions to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation for pretrial consolidation and coordination. The court granted Prospect’s motion. It already was “besieged” by 23 sets of identical interrogatories and production requests in cases where scheduling orders have been issued and discovery begun. Further, Prospect’s response to each of the 37 sets of discovery demands was unquestionably burdensome, and simultaneous litigation of the 37 federal cases already filed against Prospect would be toilsome and costly. Also, prejudice to plaintiffs was minimal. Neither a Rule 26(f) nor Rule 16 conference has convened and discovery has not commenced. Even if a four-month delay occurs, plaintiffs’ prejudice was negligible, and outweighed by the prejudice to Prospect if required to respond to 37 separate lawsuits.
