[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1748 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1748

  To amend chapter 87 of title 28, United States Code, to authorize a 
judge to whom a case is transferred to retain jurisdiction over certain 
               multidistrict litigation cases for trial.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 19, 1999

    Mr. Hatch (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Kohl, Mr. 
 Torricelli, and Mr. Schumer) introduced the following bill; which was 
       read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend chapter 87 of title 28, United States Code, to authorize a 
judge to whom a case is transferred to retain jurisdiction over certain 
               multidistrict litigation cases for trial.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Multidistrict Jurisdiction Act of 
1999''.

SEC. 2. MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION.

    Section 1407 of title 28, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in the third sentence of subsection (a), by inserting 
        ``or ordered transferred to the transferee or other district 
        under subsection (i)'' after ``terminated''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(i)(1) Subject to paragraph (2), any action transferred under 
this section by the panel may be transferred, for trial purposes, by 
the judge or judges of the transferee district to whom the action was 
assigned to the transferee or other district in the interest of justice 
and for the convenience of the parties and witnesses.
    ``(2) Any action transferred for trial purposes under paragraph (1) 
shall be remanded by the panel for the determination of compensatory 
damages to the district court from which it was transferred, unless the 
court to which the action has been transferred for trial purposes also 
finds, for the convenience of the parties and witnesses and in the 
interests of justice, that the action should be retained for the 
determination of compensatory damages.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall apply to any civil action 
pending on or brought on or after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.
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