ORDER OF MULTIDISTRICT LITIGATION PANEL
Order Issued October 29, 2025
THE MOTION TO TRANSFER IN THE FOLLOWING CASE IS GRANTED:
25-0616 IN RE HOTARD COACHES, INC., ET AL. LITIGATION The Panel on Multidistrict litigation grants the Motion to Transfer1filed on July 15, 2025. We previously notified the parties of the submission date on the Motion to Transfer, which has now passed. And we previously entered an Order on July 21, 2025, granting the Motion to Stay with respect to the cases described in the appendix to the Motion to Transfer. On September 9, 2025, the Defendants filed a notice of another related suit styled Martin Luna v. Schwanda Sherman, Industrial Bus Lines, Inc., All Aboard America! Holdings, Inc., and Hotard Coaches, Inc., Cause No. 25DCCV1305 (the Luna Case), in the 58th Judicial District of Jefferson County, Texas, and requested a transfer to the designated MDL and sought a stay. After considering the Motion to Transfer, the Responses, and the Reply, and the Notice of the Additional related case (the Luna Case) as well as the applicable law, we find that the cases listed in the Appendix to the Motion to Transfer, as well as the Luna Case, are related because they involve one or more common questions of fact and further that transfer to a specified MDL district court will be for the convenience of the parties and witnesses and will promote the just and efficient conduct of the cases. See, TEX. GOVT. CODE SEC. 74.162; TEX. R. JUD. ADMIN. 13.3.
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We limit the scope of the MDL Pretrial Court to those cases listed in the Appendix to the Motion to Transfer, together with the Luna Case identified in the Notice filed with the MDL on September 9, 2025, and any tag-along cases. See TEX. R. JUD. ADMIN. 13.2 (g).
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED THAT:
1. The motion to transfer is granted.
2. The following cases are hereby transferred to the Pretrial Court:
a. All cases listed in Appendix to the Motion to Transfer; and b. The Luna Case identified in the Notice filed with the MDL on September 9, 2025; and,
c. All tag-along cases. See TEX. R. JUD. ADMIN. 13.2 (g).
3. The "Designation of Parties To Serve Request For Transfers And Other Notices On Other Parties In Rule 13 Proceeding" (Designation) signed by the Clerk of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation applies to proceedings before this panel and is not terminated by this order. The Designation does not limit the authority of the Pretrial Judge to designate party representatives in a Pretrial Court.
4. The Panel will issue a second order designating the Pretrial Court and assigned Judge. We direct that notice of this Order be sent to the attorneys of record, the trial courts, and clerks of the respective Courts.
5. We extend the stay previously granted to include the Luna Case, and we notify the parties that the stay will be lifted upon the designation of the Pretrial Court and the assigned judge.
CHAIR OF THE PANEL PRESIDING JUDGE DAVID L. EVANS, PRESIDING JUDGE SID
HARLE, JUSTICE LEANNE JOHNSON, JUSTICE KEN WISE, AND PRESIDING JUDGE
GARLAND B. WOODWARD, CONCUR