The forum defendant rule normally bars removing a state case to federal court when there is a forum defendant, even if the parties are otherwise diverse. A rarely-used method is the exception to this rule. Using a procedure called snap removal, defendants can avoid the forum defendant rule by removing before the forum defendant is served.
28 U.S.C. ' 1441 allows a defendant to remove a case to federal court based on diversity jurisdiction except where "any of the parties in interest properly joined and served as defendants is a citizen of the State in which such action is brought." A snap removal defendant argues that the forum defendant rule does not apply because a forum defendant is not "served" at the time of removal.
Because snap removal can allow defendants to circumvent the forum defendant rule, it is crucial for state court litigants on both sides of the "v" to keep the practice in mind at the initial stages of litigation, including the mechanics of the practice and courts' views of it.
Legal Landscape
Though there is not a bona fide circuit split on the issue of snap removal, courts are divided. The Second, Third, and Fifth Circuits have interpreted section 1441(b) to allow snap removal. See Gibbons v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., 919 F.3d 699 (2d Cir. 2019); Encompass Ins. Co. v. Stone Mansion Rest. Inc., 902 F.3d 147 (3d Cir. 2018); Texas Brine Co. LLC v. Am. Arbitration Ass'n. Inc., 955 F.3d 482 (5th Cir. 2020). The Sixth and Eleventh Circuits have endorsed that interpretation of section 1441(b), albeit in a footnote and dicta. See McCall v. Scott, 239 F.3d 808, 813 n.2 (6th Cir. 2001); Goodwin v. Reynolds, 757 F.3d 1216, 1220-21 (11th Cir. 2014). Meanwhile, just last year, the Ninth Circuit declined to express a view on snap removal while concluding "super snap removal" - removal before a...
