Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, United States Federal Court, Southern District of New York

“ Clearly, the Manigault action is based on the same alleged fraudulent activity that is involved in some of the actions already before the transferee court. Therefore, if the settlement judgment is not affirmed on appeal, transfer of this action will prevent both unnecessary duplication of discovery and inconsistent pretrial rulings concerning the common factual issues. Any unique factual issues can be handled by the transferee court as well. ”

“ Plaintiff Manigault is a member of the settling class and did not choose to optout. Also, all of the corporate defendants and one of the individual defendants in the Manigault action are parties to the settlement. Appeals from the settlement judgment are currently pending before the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Plaintiff Manigault concedes that if the settlement is affirmed and his claim is allowed, he will presumably be forced to drop his action against the settling *1405 defendants. ”

“ U.S. Universal, Inc., . . . Mind Dynamics, Inc., and any of the domestic or foreign affiliates or domestic or foreign subsidiaries of any of said corporations, . . . and who suffered monetary damage thereof. ”