Southwind Aviation, Inc. v. Bergen Aviation, Inc.

Plaintiff-Appellant Southwind Aviation, Inc. (“Southwind”) sued to collect on a contract and to seek a determination of its rights as a lien-holder and as a possible beneficiary of an insurance policy. Mistakenly characterizing this as a declaratory judgment action, the district court 1 concluded that abstention was warranted by the presence of ongoing state litigation involving the same subject matter, issues, and essentially the same parties. Accordingly, the district court dismissed Southwind’s suit after applying the abstention standards for declaratory judgment actions. As Southwind…