Burns v. Superior Goods, Inc.

RANDY BURNS, Jr., Plaintiff, v. SUPERIOR GOODS, INC., et al., Defendants.

Case No. 2:20-CV-01594-KOB

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA SOUTHERN DIVISION

February 11, 2021

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The average motion submitted to a federal district court usually requires that court to decide multiple questions and reach multiple conclusions. But this Motion to Remand (doc. 5) filed by plaintiff Randy Burns is not the average motion. Instead, Mr. Burns's motion boils down to one discrete question: when a litigant removes a state court action to federal court, may the federal court properly remand the action to state court because of a procedural defect in the notice of removal if the party moving to remand did not raise that particular procedural defect in its initial motion?

Because, under the settled law of the Eleventh Circuit, the answer to that question is "yes," the court will GRANT Mr. Burns's motion to remand and will REMAND this action to the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama. Beyond Freight also filed a motion to amend its notice of removal in which it asks the court to deem its notice of removal timely filed, but the court will DENY that motion.

Finally, Mr. Burns filed an unopposed motion to dismiss defendants Beyond Freight and Marcos Darosa. Because the court otherwise has subject-matter jurisdiction over this action, and because Beyond Freight and Mr. Darosa do not oppose the motion to dismiss them, the court will also GRANT Mr. Burns's motion to dismiss (doc. 4) and will DISMISS Beyond Freight and Marcos Darosa from this action WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

The events underlying this lawsuit occurred on June 13, 2019. Plaintiff Randy Burns alleges that on that date, defendant Cleider DeLarosa Sanchez, while operating a tractor-trailer in the scope of employment with defendant Superior Goods, negligently caused an automobile accident in which Mr. Burns sustained injuries. (Doc. 1-1 at 4-5). Mr. Burns then sued Mr. Sanchez, Superior Goods, and twelve fictitious defendants in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama on June 27, 2019 seeking compensatory damages for medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages, as well as punitive damages. (Doc 1-1 at 2, 6). Mr. Burns is an Alabama resident, Mr. Sanchez is a Georgia resident, and Superior Goods is a Georgia corporation with its principal place of business in Georgia. (Doc. 1 at 3; doc. 2 at 13).

The case then progressed in state court for the next year while the parties took depositions and exchanged written discovery. (Doc. 7 at 3). But when Mr. Sanchez testified in a deposition that Marcos Darosa—another tractor-trailer driver on the road that day—actually caused the accident, Mr. Burns amended his complaint on July 14, 2020 to add Mr. Darosa and Mr. Darosa's employer, Beyond Freight, Inc., as defendants. (Doc. 7 at 3). Mr. Darosa is a Tennessee resident¹ and Beyond Freight is an Illinois corporation with its principal place of business in Illinois. (Doc. 1 at 3; doc. 1-3 at 2; doc. 7 at 3). Mr. Burns effected service on Beyond Freight on September 5, 2020. (Doc. 1 at 2). Under 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b)(1), BeyondFreight had thirty days after it received service to file a notice of removal with this court: a period that began on September 6, 2020 and ended on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.

After obtaining the consent of Mr. Sanchez, Mr. Darosa, and Superior Goods, the original defendants, Beyond Freight filed a notice of removal in the Jefferson County Circuit Court on September 29, 2020 on the grounds of complete diversity between the parties as allowed by 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332 and 1441(a). (Doc. 1 at 1-3). Beyond Freight alleges that it attempted to file a notice of removal with this court on September 29, 2020, but because of claimed technical issues with this court's CM/ECF (electronic filing) system, the court did not receive Beyond Freight's notice of removal until October 9, 2020—three days after the statutory period allowed for removal ended. 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b)(1). (Doc. 1 at 1).

In its notice of removal, filed October 9, 2020, Beyond Freight attached the affidavit of Ashley Harrison, the legal assistant who attempted to file the notice of removal with this court on September 29, 2020. (Doc. 2 at 6). Ms. Harrison claims that although she "did not receive an 'error' message" after uploading the notice of removal and accompanying documents, she later realized that only a single file had been uploaded and that the entire upload "had not been properly completed." (Doc. 2 at 8-9). Accordingly, Beyond Freight filed a motion (doc. 2) asking this court to deem its notice of removal filed on September 29, 2020—the date it first attempted to file its removal notice. (Doc. 2 at 1).

Mr. Burns then filed a motion to dismiss (doc. 4) defendants Marcos Darosa and Beyond Freight in an attempt to defeat this court's jurisdiction, as indicated by his contemporaneously-filed motion to remand (doc. 5; doc. 7 at 2). Mr. Burns also filed a motion to correct (doc. 7) his motion to remand based on typographical errors. Mr. Darosa and Beyond Freight responded in support (doc. 11) of Mr. Burns's motion to dismiss them. Mr. Sanchez and Superior Goods,seeking to stay in federal court, responded in opposition (doc. 10) to Mr. Burns's motion to remand. Finally, Mr. Burns filed a reply (doc. 12) to Mr. Sanchez's and Superior Goods' response in opposition to his motion to remand. And because none of the defendants opposed Mr. Burns's motion to correct his motion to remand, the court will GRANT that motion and will consider Mr. Burns's amended motion to remand (doc. 7). Thus, only Mr. Burns's amended motion to remand, Beyond Freight's motion to amend the notice of removal, and Mr. Burns's motion to dismiss remain for the court's consideration.

II. Legal Standard

Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Accordingly, if either the parties or the court itself questions the existence of federal subject-matter jurisdiction at any point in the proceedings, the court has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that federal jurisdiction exists before it takes up any other issues presented by the parties. Mirage Resorts, Inc. v. Quiet Nacelle Corp., 206 F.3d 1398, 1400-01 (11th Cir. 2000).

Beyond Freight removed this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b) based on diversity-of-citizenship federal jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The defendants, as the parties invoking federal jurisdiction, bear the burden of showing the existence of federal jurisdiction as of the time of removal. McCormick v. Aderholt, 293 F.3d 1254, 1257 (11th Cir. 2002); Pintando v. Miami-Dade Hous. Agency, 501 F.3d 1241, 1243 n.2 (11th Cir. 2007). And courts must narrowly construe removal statutes, resolving "any doubts about the propriety of federal jurisdiction...in favor of remand to state court" and in favor of the non-removing party—in this case, Mr. Burns. See Adventure Outdoors, Inc. v. Bloomberg, 552 F.3d 1290, 1294 (11th Cir. 2008) (citing Diaz v. Sheppard, 85 F.3d 1502, 1505 (11th Cir. 1996)); Pacheco de Perez v. AT&T Co., 139 F.3d 1368, 1373 (11th Cir. 1998).

A party who removes a case to federal court must also comply with statutory procedural requirements. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1446(a)-(b)(1), the removing party must file a notice of removal with the "district court of the United States...within 30 days" of the date it receives service of the complaint. But unlike the requirement that federal jurisdiction must exist for effective removal, litigants may waive procedural requirements, including the requirement that the removing party file its notice of removal with the district court within 30 days of service. Wilson v. Gen. Motors Corp., 888 F.2d 779, 781 n.1 (11th Cir. 1989) (citing Grubbs v. Gen. Elec. Credit Corp., 405 U.S. 699, 702 (1972)).

And finally, the requirement that courts strictly construe removal statutes in favor of remand, while usually invoked regarding questions of subject-matter jurisdiction, also applies to the procedural requirements for removal. Tucker v. Equifirst Corp., 57 F. Supp. 3d 1347, 1351-52 (S.D. Ala. 2014) (citing Syngenta Crop Prot., Inc. v. Henson, 537 U.S. 28, 32 (2002)).

III. Analysis

Mr. Burns moves to remand this case on two primary grounds. First, he alleges that the one-year bar on diversity removals requires remand. And second, he alleges that Beyond Freight did not timely file its notice of removal with this court. But Mr. Burns raised the timeliness issue for the first time in his reply brief and did not present that argument in his initial motion to remand, an issue that the court will face on its own.

Pursuant to its constitutional duty, the court will assess whether federal subject-matter jurisdiction exists before taking up the procedural issues. The court will then address Mr. Burns's motion to remand and Beyond Freight's motion to amend its notice of removal before it addresses Mr. Burns's motion to voluntarily dismiss Mr. Darosa and Beyond Freight.

A. Federal Subject-Matter Jurisdiction

As stated above, the court has a duty to ensure that federal subject-matter jurisdiction exists in this case regardless of whether either party raises the issue. Although Mr. Burns moves to remand this case on purely procedural grounds, as discussed below, the court will still analyze whether subject-matter jurisdiction exists in this case. And the jurisdictional question also directly bears on whether the one-year bar requires remand, a question the court will address later in this opinion.

Beyond Freight removed this action on the basis of diversity of citizenship jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The plaintiff, Mr. Burns, resides in Alabama. As for the defendants, Mr. Sanchez resides in Georgia; Mr. Darosa resides in Tennessee; Superior Goods is a Georgia Corporation with its principal place of business in Georgia; and Beyond Freight is an Illinois corporation with its principal place of...