Massad v. Greaves

977 A.2d 662

116 Conn.App. 672

Lisa K. MASSAD v. Sarah J. GREAVES.

No. 30194.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued June 3, 2009.

Decided August 25, 2009.

Richard M. Franchi, New Haven, for the appellant (defendant).

Jeffrey C. Ankrom, New London, for the appellee (plaintiff).

GRUENDEL, BEACH and PETERS, Js.

PETERS, J.

If a lawsuit has been improperly removed from a state court to a federal court, federal law requires the federal court to order a remand and authorizes the federal court to make an award of costs and attorney's fees. See 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c).¹ In the present case, the federal court made an award of attorney's fees and costs but directed that the supporting documentation justifying the amount of such award be submitted to the state court after the remand. The defendant has appealed from the consequent award of fees to the plaintiff. Because the doctrine of res judicata prohibits the relitigation of a claim determined upon a full and fair consideration of the merits "by a court of competent jurisdiction ... in the same or any other judicial tribunal of concurrent jurisdiction"; (emphasis added) Wade's Dairy, Inc. v. Fairfield, 181 Conn. 556, 559, 436 A.2d 24 (1980); we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

On July 19, 2006, the plaintiff, Lisa K. Massad, instituted this action in the Superior Court, alleging that the defendant, Sarah J. Greaves, had wrongfully interfered with her attempt to collect a judgment against the defendant's father.² In response, the defendant filed a number of special defenses and a counterclaim, including a claim that the plaintiff had violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.³ On November 30, 2007, before any of these claims had been adjudicated, the defendant removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. The District Court, after concluding that the defendant's removal was "untimely and without any legal basis," held that the defendant was required to pay the plaintiff the costs and attorney's fees attendant to the latter's successful remand motion. In the same order, the court remanded the case to allow the plaintiff to "submit her affidavit of fees and costs sought ... to the Connecticut Superior Court...." The defendant did not file an appeal from that order to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

On May 8, 2008, in accordance with the remand order from the District Court, the plaintiff filed, in the trial court, a motion for attorney's fees supported by an itemization of fees. On May 28, 2008, the defendant filed an objection to this motion in which she maintained that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to award such fees, principally because, in the defendant's view, the District Court retained exclusive jurisdiction over any award of attorney's fees in this case.⁴ On July 22, 2008, without issuing a memorandum of decision, the court granted the plaintiff's motion for attorney's fees in the requested amount of $4833.78. The defendant did not request an articulation under Practice Book § 66-5.

The defendant's appeal from the judgment of the trial court ordering payment of attorney's fees to the plaintiff raises two issues. The defendant claims that the court (1) lacked subject matter jurisdiction and (2) violated her constitutional right to due process by awarding the fees without a hearing and without making a finding of bad faith by the defendant. We disagree.

I

The defendant's principal claim at the trial court, and on appeal, challenges the court's subject matter jurisdiction to award attorney's fees to the plaintiff. In the defendant's view, despite the unequivocal language of the District Court's remand order, only that court had jurisdiction to make such an award. We are not persuaded.⁵

Whether the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction to grant the plaintiff's motion for attorney's fees is a question of law that warrants plenary review by this court. "We have long held that because [a] determination regarding a trial court's subject matter jurisdiction is a question of law, our review is plenary.... Subject matter jurisdiction involves the authority of the court to adjudicate the type of controversy presented by the action before it.... [A] court lacks discretion to consider the merits of a case over which it is without jurisdiction...." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Ferguson Mechanical Co. v. Dept. of Public Works, 282 Conn. 764, 770-71, 924 A.2d 846 (2007).

The defendant's jurisdictional challenge is addressed only to the court's award of attorney's fees. Significantly, she has not clearly articulated any challenge to the validity of the underlying conclusion of the District Court that she improperly removed the case. She argues instead that once the District Court decided that an award of attorney's fees was warranted, that court should have made the award rather than ordering the trial court to find the amount of fees to which the plaintiff was entitled. In other words, she questions the authority of the trial court to award attorney's fees for an improper invocation of federal jurisdiction, even where the District Court decided that the plaintiff was entitled to the award.

A

It is well established that, in the absence of congressional intent to vest exclusive jurisdiction over a particular matter in the federal courts, state courts have concurrent jurisdiction over a matter arising under federal law. The United States Supreme Court "has long made clear that federal law is as much the law of the several States as are the laws passed by their legislatures. Federal and state law `together form one system of jurisprudence, which constitutes the law of the land for the State; and the courts of the two jurisdictions are not foreign to each other, nor to be treated by each other as such, but as courts of the same country, having jurisdiction partly different and partly concurrent.' Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U.S. 130, [137], 23 L.Ed. 833 (1876)...." (Citations omitted.) Haywood v. Drown, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 2108, 2114, 173 L.Ed.2d 920 (2009). Furthermore, the supremacy clause of the United States constitution⁶ prohibits states from refusing jurisdiction over federal claims when state courts have jurisdiction to hear analogous suits. Id., at 2117 n. 6, 173 L.Ed.2d 920 (citing Testa v. Katt, 330 U.S. 386, 388, 394, 67 S.Ct. 810, 91 L.Ed. 967 [1947], for proposition that state law claim over which state does exercise jurisdiction need not be identical to federal claim that state seeks to exclude).

The federal removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1446(d),⁷ provides that, upon removal, "the State court shall proceed no further unless and until the case is remanded." When, however, a certified copy of a remand to state court is mailed to the state court clerk, 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c) authorizes the state court to proceed again with the case. See Ins. Co. of Pennsylvania v. Waterfield, 102 Conn.App. 277, 283, 925 A.2d 451 (2007) (under plain language of 28 U.S.C. § 1447, state court has subject matter jurisdiction to proceed as soon as remand effected).

The defendant's argument that only the District Court had jurisdiction to award attorney's fees to the plaintiff relies on a number of federal cases that have held that the District Court may make an award of attorney's fees even after a case has been remanded to the state court. See, e.g. United States ex. rel. Grynberg v. Praxair, Inc., 389 F.3d 1038 (10th Cir. 2004), cert. denied, 545 U.S. 1139, 125 S.Ct. 2964, 162 L.Ed.2d 888 (2005); Hart v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 360 F.3d 674 (7th Cir.2004); Husko v. Geary Electric, Inc., 316 F.Supp.2d 664 (N.D.Ill.2004). These cases do not advance the defendant's argument. Their holdings relate to the authority of the federal District Court to exercise jurisdiction over attorney's fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c) and they do not address the jurisdiction of the state courts to enforce an order by the federal court after a remand pursuant to that statute. In short, we have found no case, and the defendant has cited none, suggesting that Congress intended § 1447(c) to preempt state law and to make the federal court the exclusive forum for the determination of the amount of attorney's fees that are an appropriate sanction for an improper removal of a state case.

In the alternative, the defendant maintains that the exercise of jurisdiction by the trial court in this case was improper in view of federal case law that requires the District Court to exercise its discretion to determine whether an improper removal of a case from a state court warrants an award of attorney's fees and costs to the opposing party. That argument presupposes that the district court failed to exercise such discretion in this case. The record of the District Court proceedings establishes the opposite.⁸ The District Court expressly followed the principles recently articulated by the United States Supreme Court in Martin v. Franklin Capital Corp., 546 U.S. 132, 140-41, 126 S.Ct. 704, 163 L.Ed.2d 547 (2005), in rendering its judgment that the circumstances of the removal in this case warranted an award of attorney's fees and costs. If the defendant wanted to challenge the manner in which the District Court exercised its discretion, the defendant could have filed an appeal from the District Court's order in the Second Circuit. See Bryant v. Britt, 420 F.3d 161 (2d Cir.2005).

B

Under the governing principles of federal law, the remand order of the District Court again vested jurisdiction over the proceedings in this case in the trial court.⁹ Such jurisdiction is buttressed by the well established principle that, as a general matter, state trial courts have the competence to determine a reasonable figure for an award of attorney's fees. The trial court is a court of general jurisdiction that regularly determines appropriate awards for fees and costs. "Courts have a general knowledge of...