John Cottrell v. Michael Duke

SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge.

In Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States, the United States Supreme Court held that exceptional circumstances may permit a federal court to refrain from hearing a case and instead defer to a concurrent, parallel state-court proceeding. The question in this appeal is whether a federal court may utilize Colorado River to stay a federal shareholder-derivative proceeding that contains a valid claim within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts. We hold that such a case may not be stayed pursuant to Colorado River. Thus, we vacate the stay…