In 2013, a freight train carrying crude oil derailed, destroying much of the downtown of a city in Quebec and killing 47 people, who subsequently sued. Their case was dismissed by the federal district court in Maine on jurisdictional grounds. They appealed the dismissal, but for the first time in the case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the bankruptcy, rather than the general civil rules applied, meaning that their notice of appeal had to be filed within 14, rather than 30, days, and depriving the appellate court of subject-matter jurisdiction.

     The plaintiffs have now sought review in the U.S. Supreme Court. In an amicus brief filed by CCL, scholars who teach and write in the areas of civil procedure and federal courts urged the Court to take up the case because switching the applicable rules mid-stream is inconsistent with due process and has troubling and far-reaching consequences for civil litigation. By insisting that a non-party's bankruptcy petition was sufficiently related to this litigation and therefore warranted application of the bankruptcy rules, the First Circuit invited other litigants to search for a distantly related bankruptcy litigation to game the system and knock out cases against themselves, the brief argued.

      The case, Roy v. Canadian Pacific Railway, will be considered by the Supreme Court in conference in April after the defendant was granted a 30-day extension of time to respond to the plaintiffs' petition and the CCL amicus brief.