Holloway v. Gamble-Skogmo, Inc.

274 F. Supp. 321, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8118
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedOctober 25, 1967
Docket67 C 499
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 274 F. Supp. 321 (Holloway v. Gamble-Skogmo, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holloway v. Gamble-Skogmo, Inc., 274 F. Supp. 321, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8118 (N.D. Ill. 1967).

Opinion

OPINION

NAPOLI, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, who are all Illinois citizens, commenced this action in the Circuit Court of LaSalle County, Illinois, against Gamble-Skogmo, Inc., a Minnesota corporation, seeking to recover in excess of $10,000 for personal injuries allegedly caused by a defective automobile tire sold by Gamble-Skogmo to one of the plaintiffs. Shortly after filing of the complaint, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, with leave of court, making similar allegations against defendant Bruce E. Bauter, an Illinois citizen. Meanwhile, Gamble-Skogmo filed a third party complaint against Uniroyal, a New Jersey Corporation, alleging that the tire in question was manufactured by Uniroyal, that if there was any negligence on the part of Gamble-Skogmo, this negligence was passive in nature, and that the negligence, if any, which caused the plaintiffs’ injuries was that of Uniroyal. The third party complaint in its prayer for relief demands judgment against Uniroyal for all sums which may be adjudged against Gamble-Skogmo in the main action.

Uniroyal promptly filed a petition for removal of the entire controversy to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The cause *322 is now before this court on plaintiff’s motion for remand.

Uniroyal contends that this case is properly removable under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(c), which provides:

(e) Whenever a separate and independent claim or cause of action, which would be removable if sued upon alone, is joined with one or more otherwise non-removable claims or causes of action, the entire case may be removed and the district court may determine all issues therein, or, in its discretion, may remand all matters not otherwise within its original jurisdiction.

Removal statutes have always been strictly construed against allowing removal to the federal courts. See Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sheets, 313 U.S. 100, 61 S.Ct. 868, 85 L.Ed. 1214 (1941). When Section 1441(c) was amended to its present form in 1948, it was interpreted to restrict even further the right of removal. American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn, 341 U.S. 6, 71 S.Ct. 534, 95 L.Ed. 702 (1951). Before the 1948 revision, “removable controversy” was interpreted as any possible action that a litigant might properly bring in a federal court so long as it was between citizens of different states. Whenever a suit in a state court had such federally cognizable controversy, the entire suit might be removed to the federal court. Barney v. Latham, 103 U.S. 205, 26 L.Ed. 514 (1880).

By its 1948 revision to the removal statute, Congress added one further requirement to the right of removal: not only must a suit be removable if sued upon alone, but it must be a “separate and independent claim or cause of action” joined with another non-removable claim. Commenting upon the significance of this new language in the removal statute, the Supreme Court in American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn, supra, said:

A separable controversy is no longer an adequate ground for removal unless it also constitutes a separate and independent claim or cause of action, [citations] Congress has authorized removal now under § 1441(c) only when there is a separate and independent claim or cause of action. Of course, “separate cause of action” restricts removal more than “separable controversy.” In a suit covering multiple parties or issues based on a single claim, there may be only one cause of action and yet be separable controversies. The addition of the word “independent” gives emphasis to congressional intention to require more complete disassociation between the federally cognizable proceedings and those cognizable only in state courts before allowing removal. 341 U.S. at 11-12, 71 S.Ct. at 538. (emphasis added).

Under even the most liberal rules of third party practice, parties are not properly joined unless there is some question of law or fact common to all of them, and some claim asserted for or against all arising out of a single transaction or occurrence or series of related transactions or occurrences. 1 Third party complaints are not separate and independent of plaintiff’s complaint, but are in whole or in part dependent thereon.

In the case at bar, it is apparent that the third party complaint is completely dependent upon the main action. Defendant Gamble-Skogmo makes no claim against Uniroyal other than for indemnification for sums adjudged against it and in favor of plaintiff. Unless and until a judgment is entered for plaintiff, Gamble-Skogmo can recover nothing from Uniroyal. Where there is but one actionable wrong contained in a complaint, although separable controversies may ensue as a consequence thereof, no right of removal exists. American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn, 341 U.S. 6, 71 S.Ct. 534 (1951). Similar considerations could be advanced for denying removal under 1441 (c) to mandatory counterclaims, cross- *323 claims and claims of intervenors. Indeed Professor Moore

* * * (does) not believe that any claim introduced into the action by counterclaim, crosselaim, third party claim, intervention, or garnishment should afford the basis for removal. (Moore’s Commentary on U.S. Judicial Code, Par. 0.03 (37), page 252.)

The cases since American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn, supra, seem to be moving in the direction of adopting Professor Moore’s interpretation. Several cases have directly held, in remanding third party actions for indemnity to the state courts, that removal under 28 U.S.C. § 1441(c) is limited to situations where joinder of claims or parties has been by plaintiff only. Rager v. Crampes, 223 F. Supp. 346, 347 (D.C., 1963); White v. Baltic Conveyor Company, 209 F.Supp. 716 (D.C., 1962); Shaver v. Arkansas-Best Freight System, Inc., 171 F.Supp. 754 (D.C., 1959). Other courts have reached the same result by finding that a third party complaint for indemnity is not “separate and independent” from plaintiff’s action, within the meaning of the removal statute. Texas Plumbing Co. v. Zurn Industries, Inc., 169 F.Supp. 144 (D.C., 1958); Manternach v. Jones Country Farm Service Company, 156 F. Supp. 574 (D.C., 1957). A reading of these cases leaves the impression that it is difficult to imagine a third party complaint which is not “dependent” on the main cause of action, since under even the most liberal state third party practice, a close relation between the third party claim and the case in chief is a minimal requirement.

In view of the policy of placing narrow constructions upon statutes conferring removal jurisdiction in the federal courts, it is not at all unreasonable to limit removals under 28 U.S.C. § 1441

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
274 F. Supp. 321, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holloway-v-gamble-skogmo-inc-ilnd-1967.