Jocelyn Allen v. the Boeing Company

784 F.3d 625, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 6868, 2015 WL 1881687
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedApril 27, 2015
Docket15-35162
StatusPublished
Cited by80 cases

This text of 784 F.3d 625 (Jocelyn Allen v. the Boeing Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jocelyn Allen v. the Boeing Company, 784 F.3d 625, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 6868, 2015 WL 1881687 (9th Cir. 2015).

Opinions

OPINION

CALLAHAN, Circuit Judge:

Jocelyn Allen and others (Plaintiffs) sued The Boeing Company (Boeing) and Landau Associates (Landau) in a Washington state court alleging that for over forty years Boeing released toxins into the groundwater around its facility in Auburn, Washington, and that for over a decade Landau had been negligent in its investigation and remediation of the pollution. Boeing removed the case to.the District Court for the Western District of Washington claiming federal jurisdiction based on diversity and the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). The district court remanded the case to state court holding that (1) Landau was not fraudulently joined, and thus there was not complete diversity, and (2) Plaintiffs’ action came within the local single event exception to CAFA federal jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(11)(B)(ii)(I). Boeing sought and was granted leave to appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1453(c). We hold that Plaintiffs’ action does not come within the local single event exception to CAFA, and that, therefore, the district court has federal jurisdiction under CAFA. We affirm the district court’s determination that Boeing failed to show that Landau was fraudulently joined. We refer Plaintiffs’ assertion that their action falls within the local controversy exception to federal jurisdiction under CAFA, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(4)(A), to the district court for consideration in the first instance.

I. Background

From the 1960s to the 1990s, Boeing used solvents that allegedly contained hazardous chemicals in its aircraft parts manufacturing plant in Auburn, Washington. In 1987, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Department of Ecology) initiated requirements for the treatment, storage and handling of hazardous materials. In 2002, Boeing entered into an agreement with the Department of Ecology to investigate and remediate releases of hazardous substances from its manufacturing plant and retained Landau to conduct the investigation and remediation.

In November 2013, Plaintiffs filed an action against Boeing and Landau in King County Superior Court, Washington. Plaintiffs alleged that they “incurred property damages as a result of groundwater contamination by hazardous chemicals at and around” Boeing’s Auburn plant “from the 1960s to the present.” They further alleged “that Boeing and its environmental-remediation contractor, Landau, are liable for negligently investigating, remediating, and cleaning up the contamination and for failing to warn Plaintiffs of the contamination.” Based on these allegations, Plaintiffs asserted state law claims of negligence, nuisance, and trespass against Boeing and negligence against Landau.

In April 2014, Boeing removed the action to the District Court for the Western [628]*628District of Washington. It asserted two independent bases for federal jurisdiction: diversity jurisdiction and CAFA. With respect to diversity jurisdiction, Boeing al-, leged that Landau had been fraudulently joined to defeat complete diversity.

On September 23, 2014, the district court held that Landau had not been fraudulently joined, but thát the action fell within the local single event exception to federal jurisdiction under CAFA, and re-, manded the case to the state court.

II. The Local Single Event Exception

A. Standard of Review

Boeing filed a petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1453(c)(1) for leave to appeal, which we subsequently granted. We review the remand order de novo. Ibarra v. Manheim Invs., Inc., 775 F.3d 1193, 1196 (9th Cir.2015).

A defendant generally may remove a civil action if a federal district court would have original jurisdiction over the action. 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a). The Supreme Court has clarified that “no antiremoval presumption attends cases invoking CAFA, which Congress enacted to facilitate adjudication of certain class actions in federal court.” Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co. v. Owens, — U.S. —, 135 S.Ct. 547, 554, 190 L.Ed.2d 495 (2014). This clarification reinforces our holding that “the objecting party bears the burden of proof as to the applicability of any express statutory exception under §§ 1332(d)(4)(A) and (B).” Serrano v. 180 Connect, Inc., 478 F.3d 1018, 1024 (9th Cir.2007).1

B. Federal Jurisdiction

Boeing alleged federal jurisdiction based on diversity, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1), and on the ground that Plaintiffs’ action was a “mass . action” pursuant to CAFA, § 1332(d)(11)(B). A “mass action” is defined as “any civil action ... in which monetary relief claims of 100 or more persons are proposed to be tried jointly on the ground that the plaintiffs’ claims involve common questions of law or fact, except that jurisdiction shall exist only over those plaintiffs whose claims in a mass action satisfy the jurisdictional amount requirements under subsection (a).” 28. U.S.C. § 1332(d)(11)(B)(i). There is no real question that Plaintiffs’ action fits within this definition.

However, § 1332(d)(ll)(B)(ii) sets forth certain exceptions to CAFA jurisdiction. In particular, subsection (d)(11)(B)(ii)(I) provides that the term “mass action” does not include a civil action in which “all of the claims in the action arise from an event or occurrence in the State in which the action was filed, and that allegedly resulted in injuries in that State or in States contiguous to that State.” It is the district court’s holding that Plaintiffs’ action falls within this local single event exception to federal jurisdiction under CAFA 'that commands our attention.

C. Case law

We addressed the local event exception in Nevada v. Bank of America Corp., 672 F.3d 661 (9th Cir.2012). In that case, Nevada brought a parens patriae action alleging that “Bank of America misled Nevada consumers about the terms and operation of its home mortgage modification and foreclosure processes, in violation of [629]*629[Nevada law].” Id. at 664. In the process of concluding that the parens patriae action was not a “mass action,” id. at 672, we stated:

The district court ruled that this action does not qualify as a “mass action” under the “event or occurrence” exclusion in CAFA, which expressly provides that the term “mass action” excludes any civil action in which “all of the claims in the action arise from an event or occurrence in the State in which the action was filed, and that allegedly resulted in injuries in that State.... ” 28 U.S.C. § 1332

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Bluebook (online)
784 F.3d 625, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 6868, 2015 WL 1881687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jocelyn-allen-v-the-boeing-company-ca9-2015.