Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 82.djvu/151

 82 STAT. ]

PUBLIC LAW 90-296-APR. 29, 1968

109

Public Law 90-296 AN ACT To provide for the temporary transfer to a single district for coordinated or consolidated pretrial pnx'eedings of civil actions pending in different districts which involve one or more common questions of fact, and for other puriwses.

Be It enacted by the Senate and House of RepreHentattveH of the United States of America In Congress assembled, That chapter 87 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by inserting therein after section 1406: "§ 1407. Multidistrict litigation " (a) When civil actions involving one or more common questions of fact are pending in different districts, such actions may be transferred to any district for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. Such transfers shall be made by the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation authorized by this section upon its determination that transfers for such proceedings will be for the convenience of parties and witnesses and will promote the just and efficient conduct of such actions. Each action so transferred shall be remanded by the panel at or before the conclusion of such pretrial proceedings to the district from which it was transferred unless it shall have been previously teiminated: Provided, however, That the panel may separate any claim, cross-claim, counter-claim, or third-party claim and remand any of such claims before the remainder of the action is remanded. " (b) Such coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings shall be conducted by a judge or judges to whom such actions are assigned by the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation. For this purpose, upon request of the panel, a circuit judge or a district judge may be designated and assigned temporarily for service in the transferee district by the Chief Justice of the United States or the chief judge of the circuit, as may be required, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 13 of this title. With the consent of the transferee district court, such •

April 29, 1968 [S. 159]

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actions may be assigned by the panel to a judge or judges of such dis- 28 USC 291trict. The judge or judges to whom such actions are assigned, the 296. members of the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation, and other circuit and district judges designated when needed by the panel may exercise the powers of a district judge in any district for the purpose of conducting pretrial depositions in such coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. "(c) Proceedings for the transfer of an action under this section initiation of may be initiated by— " (i) the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation upon its own initiative, or "(ii) motion filed with the panel by a party in any action in which transfer for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings under this section may be appropriate. A copy of such motion shall be filed in the district court m which the moving party's action is pending. "The panel shall give notice to the parties in all actions in which Hearings, etc transfer's for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings are contemplated, and such notice shall specify the time and place of any hearing to determine whether such transfer shall be made. Orders of the panel to set a hearing and other orders of the panel issued prior to the order either directing or denying transfer shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the district court in which a transfer hearing is to be or has been held. The panel's order of transfer shall be based upon a record of such hearing at which material evidence may be offered by any party to an action pending in any district that would be affected by the proceedings under this section, and shall be supported by findings of fact

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