A District Court judge in Florida has denied a defendant’s motion to stay a Hunstein case, ruling that the pending en banc petition in Hunstein before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals “does not affect the precedential value” of the ruling, “which is the law of this circuit.”
A copy of the ruling in the case of Durling v. Credit Corp Solutions can be accessed by clicking here.
Rulings like the one issued by Judge Rodney Smith of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida in this case were discussed during a webinar hosted by AccountsRecovery.net yesterday on the topic of defending against Hunstein-related lawsuits.
“I don’t think that motions to stay are going to succeed in a number of jurisdictions,” said Manny Newburger of Barron & Newburger during the webinar. “The plaintiff’s bar has already told me they intend to oppose them in a fair number of jurisdictions.”
The plaintiff in this case opposed the defendant’s request to stay the ruling pending the outcome of the en banc petition, and Judge Smith ruled that the defendant did not do a sufficient job of making its case that proceeding with the suit would case hardship or inequity.
“While Defendant has argued that a stay would conserve resources and a decision in Hunstein might streamline the issues, neither of these considerations show any hardship or inequity,” Judge Smith wrote. “Additionally, a stay may prejudice Plaintiff as witness’ memories fade, documents are lost, and Defendant’s allegedly illegal conduct continues. Thus, Defendant has not met its burden of establishing that a stay is appropriate under these circumstances.”
The defendant argued that a stay would not be indefinite because the Eleventh Circuit is “likely to resolve the motion for rehearing in an expeditious manner,” but Judge Smith noted that if the rehearing petition is granted, the defendant would likely request another stay until after the rehearing is held and the full panel of Eleventh Circuit judges issues its ruling, which means that the stay “could last a year or more.”
