By Memorandum Order entered by The Honorable Leonard P. Stark in Xcoal Energy & Resources v. Bluestone Energy Sales Corp., Civil Action No. 18-819-LPS (D.Del. August 18, 2020), the Court denied Defendants’ renewed emergency request to convert the remote bench trial scheduled to begin on August 25, 2020 to a partially-remote or in-person trial.
In denying Defendants’ request, the Court explained that the bench trial originally was scheduled to begin on September 16, 2019, the Court had granted Defendants two prior continuances that delayed the start of trial to August 25, 2020, and the parties themselves proposed a partially-remote trial in their joint status report after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Id. at *1-2. The Court also explained that there is good cause to conduct the trial using videoconferencing technology given the COVID-19 pandemic, the Court used the same technology to conduct the pretrial hearing in the instant action and to conduct a trial in another action with no problems, Plaintiff wished to proceed as scheduled, Defendants failed to address many of the Court’s questions directed to Defendants in their submissions, and despite their belated efforts to convert the August 25th remote bench trial to an in-person trial, Defendants also stated that they were ready for trial to proceed as scheduled. For all of these reasons, the Court denied Defendants’ request and decided to proceed with a remote bench trial on August 25, 2020.
A copy of the Memorandum Order is attached.