K. GARY SEBELIUS, District Judge.
This matter comes before the court upon Defendants' Motion to Stay Proceedings, or in the Alternative Motion to Transfer (ECF No. 25). Defendants ask the court to stay, or in the alternative, to transfer this action because the parties and issues in this case substantially overlap with an action first filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Plaintiff opposes the motion. Because the court finds that this case does not substantially overlap with the Texas case, defendants' motion is denied.
In 2017, the CBE Group, Inc., individually and on behalf of others similarly situated, filed a class-action complaint in Texas state court. On September 22, 2017, the Lexington Law Firm removed the case to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. In their third amended complaint, CBE Group and RGS Financial Inc., a subsequently joined plaintiff, allege that the Lexington Law Firm and Progrexion, Inc. ran a nationwide fraudulent credit-repair scheme.
On May 21, 2018, Plaintiff Ad Astra Recovery Services, Inc. filed this case in the District of Kansas. The complaint names as defendants: John Clifford Heath, Esq.; John C. Heath, Attorney at Law, PLLC, doing business as Lexington Law Firm; Progrexion Holdings, Inc.; Progrexion Teleservices, Inc.; Kevin Jones, Esq., and Adam C. Fullman, Esq. Plaintiff, a debt collector and credit agency, alleges that the "defendants engaged in a fraudulent credit-repair scheme designed to bombard debt collectors with false credit dispute letters with the intention of deceiving debt collectors . . . and frustrating their efforts to collect legitimate debts."
Plaintiff asserts claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§1962(c) and (d). Plaintiff also brings Kansas common law claims for tortious interference with existing contractual relationships, fraud, and plaintiff seeks injunctive relief under 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c). Discovery in this case opened in August 2018, and defendants filed the motion to stay or transfer on November 26, 2018.
Defendants argue that because this action and the Texas action substantially overlap, the first-to-file rule requires the court stay this action, or alternatively, transfer it to the Northern District of Texas. The first-to-file rule "permits a district court to decline jurisdiction where a complaint raising the same issues against the same parties has previously been filed in another district court."
Although there is overlap between the defendants in both actions, the Texas plaintiffs and the plaintiffs in this action are unrelated corporate entities. The dissimilarity of the plaintiffs is significant. Generally, courts stay cases under the first-to-file rule when the outcome of the first-filed case would impact litigation of the second-filed case.
The dissimilarity between plaintiffs is also significant when evaluating defendants' alternative request to transfer this case to the Northern District of Texas. It is not apparent that plaintiff could have originally filed suit in the Northern District of Texas, and defendants do not address the issue of jurisdiction. Generally, the first-to-file rule applies "when two district courts have jurisdiction over the same controversy, affording deference to the first filed lawsuit."
There is some similarity of the issues at stake in both cases, but not enough to warrant a stay or transfer of this action under the first-to-file rule. Both cases involve state common law claims of fraud and tortious interference with existing contractual relationships. Both cases involve allegations that defendants flooded consumer creditors with debt-dispute letters. However, this case involves also involves complex RICO claims. As plaintiff states, these claims will involve decisions about whether defendants formed an enterprise, whether they engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity, whether their actions affected interstate commerce, and whether they conspired to do so.
Accordingly,