5th Circuit Denies Cisco Mandamus Relief to Transfer Dexon’s Antitrust Case to Northern Calif.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Cisco’s mandamus petition to require the Eastern District of Texas in Texarkana to transfer Dexon’s antitrust case against Cisco and CDW to the Northern District of California (see 2304250056), said its order Wednesday (docket 23-40257).

Cisco sued Dexon, a reseller of computer networking equipment, in the Northern District of California based on Dexon’s alleged sales of counterfeit Cisco equipment. Dexon countersued, alleging Cisco wields monopoly power in the market for networking equipment, and that it recruited reseller CDW to help promote its anticompetitive conduct.

The California court dismissed Dexon’s counterclaims with leave to amend. But rather than reassert those counterclaims in California, and while the California litigation remained pending, Dexon refiled the claims against Cisco and CDW in the Eastern District of Texas. The Texarkana court denied the Cisco-CDW motion to transfer based on the first-to-file rule, and their mandamus petition sought to reverse the district court’s denial.

But mandamus relief “is an extraordinary remedy” available only if the petitioner has no other adequate means to obtain the relief it seeks, said the 5th Circuit’s denial. “Cisco fails to make this showing,” said the 5th Circuit's denial. “A district court’s misapplication of the first-to-file rule may be remedied through a normal appeal,” it said.

Cisco therefore has “adequate means” of obtaining the relief it seeks “apart from mandamus,” said the 5th Circuit. “We express no opinion on the merits of Cisco’s argument that transfer is required by the first-to-file rule,” it said. Circuit Judges Stuart Duncan, Andrew Oldham and Cory Wilson entered the denial.