diff --git a/cmd/orchestra/main.go b/cmd/orchestra/main.go
index cb12adc..874a675 100644
--- a/cmd/orchestra/main.go
+++ b/cmd/orchestra/main.go
@@ -639,6 +639,23 @@ func main() {
 			ticker := time.NewTicker(time.Second)
 			defer ticker.Stop()
 			for range ticker.C {
+				// When a coordinator is running, its own Monitor loop (every
+				// 30s) already calls Store.ExpireLeases and, critically,
+				// kills the herdr session for whatever it expires (S9: two
+				// independent expiry loops raced on the same reclaim, and
+				// since this one runs every second vs. the coordinator's
+				// 30s, it almost always won — meaning the coordinator's
+				// ExpireLeases call saw nothing left to expire and its
+				// session-kill path never ran, silently orphaning panes
+				// past their lease TTL). Calling ExpireLeases here too would
+				// just resurrect that race, so leave reclaim to the
+				// coordinator and only keep retrying pending assignment.
+				if coordinator != nil {
+					if _, err := rt.AssignPending(); err != nil {
+						log.Printf("route expired task: %v", err)
+					}
+					continue
+				}
 				if _, err := s.ExpireLeases(time.Now()); err != nil {
 					log.Printf("expire leases: %v", err)
 				} else if _, err := rt.AssignPending(); err != nil {