Hinkle's Jeep Sales, Inc. v. Villa Enterprises, Inc.

90 F.R.D. 49, 32 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1154, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11792
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedJanuary 26, 1981
DocketNo. 81-151-CIV-EBD
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 90 F.R.D. 49 (Hinkle's Jeep Sales, Inc. v. Villa Enterprises, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hinkle's Jeep Sales, Inc. v. Villa Enterprises, Inc., 90 F.R.D. 49, 32 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1154, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11792 (S.D. Fla. 1981).

Opinion

ORDER

EDWARD B. DAVIS, District Judge.

Federal and state rules of procedure combine with a recently-enacted federal removal statute to bring out the vagaries of each as the parties to this action jockey for jurisdiction, each preferring its favorite forum. At issue is the plaintiff’s motion to remand this cause to the Florida circuit court from whence it came. The problem comes from the constraints of Rule 41(a)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

A review of the procedural background of this action is vital to comprehension of the issue at hand and this Court’s ruling. The single plaintiff originally sued in state court, alleging that Villa Enterprises, an exporter, had paid for a shipment of twelve Jeeps with checks which were dishonored by the paying bank. At the time of suit, the automobiles were awaiting shipment out of the United States, so the stevedoring company, Eller & Co., and the prospective recipient of the Jeeps, the Republic of Venezuela, were also named as defendants. Plaintiff Hinkle understandably sought to enjoin the shipment.

To that end, Hinkle secured a temporary restraining order, and later a preliminary injunction, thereby gaining possession of the Jeeps. The ultimate outcome of the plaintiff’s action will depend on who now owns the vehicles: plaintiff Hinkle, defendant Villa, or defendant Venezuela, which contends that it paid defendant Villa for the automobiles in good faith and without notice of the dishonored checks.

Defendant Venezuela then removed the action to this Court under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1441(d) (1976). That statute was enacted as part of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976. This amendment to the removal law allows a foreign state to remove any civil action which has been brought against it to a United States District Court whose district and division encompasses the place where the state ac[51]*51tion is pending. 28 U.S.C. § 1441(d). This Court is an appropriate court under the statute.

Venezuela then moved to vacate or dissolve the temporary injunction which had been issued in state court. The motions were accompanied affidavits and a memorandum of law, and have not been ruled on at this time.

Not to be outdone by Venezuela’s forum switching, plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in this Court, purporting to dismiss only defendant Venezuela. The notice was filed before any defendant had served an answer or a motion for summary judgment, and thus the notice appears to comport with Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(l)(i). Plaintiff now moves to remand this action back to state court, arguing that this Court no longer has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(d) because of the purported dismissal of Venezuela.

II. AN ANSWER?

Defendant Venezuela argues, without citation to authority, that its memorandum and affidavits accompanying the motion to dissolve or vacate should be construed as an answer to the complaint. If those papers constitute an answer, plaintiff could only dismiss Venezuela as a defendant by filing a stipulation of dismissal signed by all parties who have appeared in the action, Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(1)(h), or by order of the Court. Id., 41(a)(2).

There is some early authority for construing the efforts surrounding a motion for a preliminary injunction as constituting an answer sufficient to defeat a voluntary dismissal under 41(a)(1)(i). Harvey Aluminum, Inc. v. American Cyanamid Co., 203 F.2d 105 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 345 U.S. 964, 73 S.Ct. 949, 97 L.Ed. 1383 (1953). That approach, however, has been rejected by the Fifth Circuit. Pilot Freight Carriers, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 506 F.2d 914 (5th Cir. 1975); see American Cyanamid Co. v. McGhee, 317 F.2d 295 (5th Cir. 1963). Thus, the construing-as-an-answer theory must fail.

III. “AN ACTION”

Another approach to defeating the plaintiff’s notice of dismissal would be to argue for a narrow reading of the term “an action” in Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(1). The Rule provides for dismissal of “an action,” and does not specifically cover parts of an action. If only an entire action could be dismissed by the voluntary dismissal procedure, an attempted dismissal of only one defendant would be void.

A few courts have indicated that Rule 41(a)(l)(i) prohibits dismissal of only one defendant in a multi-defendant action. See, e. g., Harvey Aluminum, 203 F.2d at 108. However, such an interpretation has been rejected in this Circuit. Plains Growers, Inc. v. Ickes-Braun, 474 F.2d 250 (5th Cir. 1973); see Oswalt v. Scripto, Inc., 616 F.2d 191 (5th Cir. 1980).

Another possible avenue opened by a literal reading of 41(a)(1) comes from the Rule’s provision that a voluntary dismissal is “[sjubject to the provisions ... of any statute of the United States . ... ” An argument could be crafted along the lines that since 28 U.S.C. § 1441(d) gives the foreign defendant the right to remove the action to federal court, such right should not be defeated by the filing of a voluntary dismissal.1 The only statutes which have [52]*52been cited as applicable in this context, see 5 Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 41.03, condition dismissal specifically on the written consent of the Court and the fulfillment of other conditions. See 8 U.S.C. § 1329 (1976); 31 U.S.C. § 232(B) (1976). Absent such specific language in 28 U.S.C. § 1441(d), this Court finds that there is no statutory impediment to a 41(a)(l)(i) voluntary dismissal of a § 1441(d) foreign defendant.

IV. CONCLUSION

From the above, the Court concludes that there is no rationale by which the notice of voluntary dismissal can be vacated. In this instance, the plaintiff is using Fed.R.Civ.P. 41

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Carew v. Desilet
M.D. Florida, 2021
Johnson v. Pharmacia & Upjohn Co.
192 F.R.D. 226 (W.D. Michigan, 1999)
Nogueras-Cartagena v. Rossello-Gonzalez
182 F.R.D. 380 (D. Puerto Rico, 1998)
Liberty Mutual Insurance v. Insurance Corp. of Ireland, Ltd.
693 F. Supp. 340 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1988)
Tucker v. Whitaker Travel, Ltd.
620 F. Supp. 578 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1985)
Pennzoil Co. v. Getty Oil Co.
473 A.2d 358 (Court of Chancery of Delaware, 1984)
Washington Petroleum & Supply Co. v. Girard Bank
629 F. Supp. 1224 (M.D. Pennsylvania, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 F.R.D. 49, 32 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1154, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11792, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hinkles-jeep-sales-inc-v-villa-enterprises-inc-flsd-1981.