Istituto Per Lo Sviluppo Economico Dell' Italia Meridionale v. Sperti Products, Inc.

47 F.R.D. 310, 13 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1392, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13528
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJuly 10, 1969
DocketNo. 68 Civ. 4667
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 47 F.R.D. 310 (Istituto Per Lo Sviluppo Economico Dell' Italia Meridionale v. Sperti Products, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Istituto Per Lo Sviluppo Economico Dell' Italia Meridionale v. Sperti Products, Inc., 47 F.R.D. 310, 13 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1392, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13528 (S.D.N.Y. 1969).

Opinion

EDELSTEIN, District Judge.

OPINION

This action was brought on a guarantee made by the defendant, an Ohio corporation, in 1965 of 26 percent of a loan which the plaintiff, an agency of the Italian Government, granted to an Italian company named Societa Azionaria Conservazione Alimenti Freschi (SACAF). The action, for the amount of defendant’s guarantee, was commenced in New York Supreme Court by service on the defendant of a notice of motion for summary judgment in lieu of complaint, a device allowed in certain cases by CPLR § 3213. Subsequently, but prior to the return date of plaintiff’s motion, the [312]*312defendant removed the action to this court, there being diversity of citizenship and an amount in controversy in excess of the requisite jurisdictional amount.

Now in the district court the plaintiff urges that its Supreme Court motion for summary judgment is a viable one and appropriate for decision “awaiting only defendant’s answering papers and argument.” The defendant opposes this position and has also cross-moved under Rule 56(f), F.R.Civ.P. for a denial without prejudice of plaintiff’s motion, or, in the alternative, for a continuance of said motion for 120 days to permit the defendant to complete discovery. These matters are before this court for decision.

At the outset the defendant raises two procedural objections: First, this court cannot proceed on the motion for summary judgment because the plaintiff has not filed a complaint in the district court; and, second, this action is not one that properly could have been brought under CPLR § 3213.

After defendant effected removal of this case, plaintiff noticed its motion for summary judgment but without first filing a complaint in this court. Defendant contends that plaintiff’s motion cannot be considered since no complaint was filed. This court does not agree. The accelerated summary judgment procedure under which plaintiff commenced this action in state court1 does not require the filing of a complaint in order for the case to proceed to judgment. A federal court to which a state action is removed takes the action in the posture in which it existed when removed from a state court’s jurisdiction and must give effect to all actions and procedures accomplished in a state court prior to removal. Thus, in Butner v. Neustadter, 324 F.2d 783 (9th Cir. 1963), it was held that the removal of a case per se, as a matter of law, did not supersede a default judgment validly entered in the state court. Also, in Bramwell v. Owen, 276 F. 36 (D.Or.1921), the case was removed after the state court had granted a motion to reargue and the reargument then was heard in the federal court. See also Gillum v. Skelly Oil Co., 149 F.Supp. 588 (W.D.Mo.1957), in which removal from the state court occurred after the plaintiff rested at trial and the federal court considered the defendant’s motion for a directed verdict based on the record of the state court proceeding, and Talley v. American Bakeries Co., 15 F.R.D. 391 (E.D.Tenn.1954), in which it was held that a demand for a jury trial in the state court made prior to removal did not have to be renewed after removal to the federal court. Thus in the instant case the federal court can consider the motion for summary judgment even though no complaint was filed because the motion for summary judgment was in the state court and had been filed there in lieu of a complaint pursuant to CPLR § 3213.

Defendant urges this court to order the plaintiff nevertheless to file a complaint. While this court has the power to order a repleading if it deems that step necessary, Freeman v. Bee Machine Co., Inc., 319 U.S. 448, 452, 63 S.Ct. 1146, 87 L.Ed. 1509 (1943), Rule 81(c), F.R.Civ.P., in this case the filing of a complaint would serve no very useful purpose.

Only pleadings filed subsequent to removal must conform to the requirements of the federal rules. Wild v. Knudsen, 1 F.R.D. 646 (E.D.Tenn. 1941); Geist v. Prudential Ins. Co. of [313]*313America, 35 F.Supp. 790 (E.D.Pa.1940). Generally, a plaintiff in a removed action is not required to refile or revise old pleadings, nor is he required to file new pleadings, Talley v. American Bakeries Co., supra, and the courts, by determining what is to be gained by requiring further papers, have taken a realistic approach to the question of whether or not supplemental papers should be required in a given case. For example, in Madron v. Thomas, 38 F.R.D. 177 (E.D. Tenn.1965), an action for alienation of affections, suit was commenced in state court by service of a summons — no other pleading was filed. After removal the defendant moved to have plaintiff re-plead. But because the summons itself briefly set out the outlines and demand of plaintiff’s action, the court there held that the filing of a complaint was unnecessary. Accord, Murphy v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 26 F.Supp. 999 (W.D.Pa.1939) (a “statement of claim” held to suffice in lieu of a complaint). Similarly, in Automatic Radio Mfg. Co., Inc. v. National Carbon Co., Inc., 35 F.Supp. 454 (D.Mass.1940), the defendant moved after removal to have the plaintiff separately number the paragraphs of the complaint in compliance with Rule 10(b), F.R.Civ.P. Separately numbered paragraphs were not required by the applicable state pleading practice and the court in its discretion denied the defendant's motion. Finally, this same realistic approach was employed in a slightly different but analogous context in Riehl v. National Mutual Insurance Co., 374 F.2d 739 (7th Cir. 1967). There the petition for removal did not meet all of the requirements of the removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1446(a), in that it failed to include a copy of the complaint filed in the state court. In fact, a complaint was not filed in the case in the federal court until after the trial had been concluded. The court nevertheless refused to hold that the district court lacked the power to try the case. A companion case to Riehl had been removed, consolidated with that case and tried at the same time. The complaint in the companion case had been filed in the district court. That complaint was substantially identical with the Riehl complaint. Thus, the Riehl omission was considered a minor irregularity because all of the parties as well as the district court knew the issues to be tried'; the notice purpose underlying the requirements of the removal statute had thus been fully served.

In arguing that a complaint must be filed in the case at bar the defendant attempts to distinguish the above cases by arguing that in each there was some form of pleading present, whereas in the case at bar there is none. But the key factor in all of these cases is that the defendant had been given actual notice of the nature of the plaintiff’s claim which enabled the defendant to answer. This fully comports with the modern objective of pleadings which is to give “A generalized summary of the case that affords fair notice * * * ” 2 to all concerned.

Defendant has never argued that plaintiff’s moving papers have not informed it fully of the nature and basis of plaintiff’s action.

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47 F.R.D. 310, 13 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1392, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13528, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/istituto-per-lo-sviluppo-economico-dell-italia-meridionale-v-sperti-nysd-1969.