Monlux v. 3M Company

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: July 31, 2024
• Docket: 2:24-cv-00912
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

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5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 9 10 ELAINE M. MONLUX, CASE NO. 2:24-cv-00912-LK 11 Plaintiff, ORDER DIRECTING 12 v. COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL RULE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE 7.1 13 3M COMPANY et al., AND LOCAL CIVIL RULE 7.1 14 Defendant. 15

16 This matter comes before the Court sua sponte. On June 24, 2024, Defendant Foster 17 Wheeler Energy Corporation removed this action to federal district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 18 § 1442(a)(1). See Dkt. No. 1 at 8–13. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7.1(a)(1), any 19 nongovernmental corporate party must file a statement that either (A) “identifies any parent 20 corporation and any publicly held corporation owning 10% or more of its stock” or (B) “states that 21 there is no such corporation.” This district’s Local Civil Rules require more. A nongovernmental 22 party “other than an individual or sole proprietorship” must file a corporate disclosure statement 23 that does one of the following: 24 1 (1) Identify any parent corporation and any publicly held corporation owning more than 10% of its stock; 2 any member or owner in a joint venture or limited liability corporation (LLC); 3 all partners in a partnership or limited liability partnership (LLP); and 4 any corporate member, if the party is any other unincorporated association; or 5 (2) State that there “is no parent, shareholder, member, or partner to identify as 6 required by LCR 7.1(a)(1).[”] 7 LCR 7.1(a). 8 Full disclosure is critical to a proper disqualification analysis under 28 U.S.C. § 455. But 9 many of the Defendants’ corporate disclosure statements fail to adhere to the requirements of 10 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7.1(a)(1) and Local Civil Rule 7.1(a). The following table 11 identifies such parties and their corresponding disclosure statement deficiencies:1 12 Party Deficiencies 13 Gardner Denver Nash LLC (Dkt. No. 18) Fails to identify member(s) of the LLC or state that there are none 14 Lamons Gasket Company (Dkt. No. 23) Fails to indicate whether any publicly held 15 corporation owns 10% or more of its stock and, if so, to identify that corporation 16 Spirax Sarco, Inc. (Dkt. No. 24) Fails to indicate whether any publicly held corporation owns 10% or more of its stock 17 and, if so, to identify that corporation 18 Henry Pratt Company, LLC (Dkt. No. 44) Fails to identify member(s) of the LLC or state that there are none 19 Sequoia Ventures Inc. and Bechtel Corporation Fails to indicate whether any publicly held 20 (Dkt. No. 46) corporation owns 10% or more of either of 21 22

23 1 As to disclosures by LLCs stating that they are wholly owned by another entity without otherwise identifying LLC members, the Court declines to scour differing state laws regarding whether LLCs may have members that are not owners. See, e.g., Plug Power Inc. v. Worthington Indus., Inc., No. 1:21-CV-00946 (BKS/TWD), 2022 WL 252104, 24 at *2 (N.D.N.Y. Jan. 27, 2022) (listing cases). 1 their stock and, if so, to identify that corporation2 2 ITT LLC (Dkt. No. 54) Fails to identify member(s) of the LLC or 3 state that there are none 4 Grinnell LLC (Dkt. No. 56) Fails to identify member(s) of the LLC or state that there are none 5 Flowserve US, Inc. (Dkt. No. 62) Fails to indicate whether any publicly held 6 corporation owns 10% or more of its stock and, if so, fails to identify that corporation 7 Clyde Union, Inc. (Dkt. No. 67) Fails to indicate whether any publicly held 8 corporation other than Clyde Union (US), Inc. owns 10% or more of its stock and, if 9 so, to identify that corporation Parsons Government Services, Inc. (Dkt. No. 70) Fails to indicate whether any publicly held 10 corporation owns 10% or more of its stock and, if so, to identify that corporation 11 WestRock Longview, LLC (Dkt. No. 82) Fails to identify member(s) of the LLC or 12 state that there are none 13 Fisher Controls International LLC (Dkt. No. 86) Fails to identify member(s) of the LLC or state that there are none 14 AECOM Energy & Construction, Inc. (Dkt. No. Fails to indicate whether any publicly held 15 100) corporation owns 10% or more of its stock and, if so, to identify that corporation 16 Metalclad Insulation LLC (Dkt. No. 103) Fails to identify member(s) of the owner 17 LLC 18 Sterling Fluid Systems (USA) LLC (Dkt. No. Fails to identify member(s) of the LLC 107) 19 Milton R. and Co, LLC (Dkt. No. 116) Fails to identify member(s) of the owner 20 LLC 21 22

23 2 The corporate disclosure statement avers that “no parent corporation or publically held company owns 10% or more of Bechtel Group, Inc.’s stock,” Dkt. No. 46 at 1, but it does not address whether any publicly held corporation owns 24 10% or more of the stock of the Defendant entities, Sequoia Ventures Inc. and Bechtel Corporation. 1 Ecodyne Corporation (Dkt. No. 119) Fails to identify whether any publicly held corporation owns 10% or more of its stock 2 and, if so, to identify that corporation 3 3M Company No corporate disclosure statement filed 4 The above-listed defendants shall have 10 days from the date of this Order to cure the 5 identified deficiencies by filing amended corporate disclosure statements. Failure to do so may 6 result in sanctions. 7 The Court further observes that several defendants have not yet appeared or filed corporate 8 disclosure statements. Those parties should diligently review this Order—and the mistakes of their 9 co-defendants—before filing their disclosure statements. 10 Dated this 31st day of July, 2024. 11 A 12 Lauren King 13 United States District Judge 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24