Poulos v. NAAS Foods, Inc.

132 F.R.D. 513, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13461, 1990 WL 150200
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 10, 1990
DocketNo. 90-C-0645
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 132 F.R.D. 513 (Poulos v. NAAS Foods, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Poulos v. NAAS Foods, Inc., 132 F.R.D. 513, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13461, 1990 WL 150200 (E.D. Wis. 1990).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

WARREN, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs’ motion to remand this action to state court and defendants’ motion to compel production of documents and answers to deposition questions are before the Court.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs filed this suit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court as Case No. 89-CV-1555453 on November 10, 1989, alleging that defendants are liable under the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Act, Wis.Stat. Ch. 135 et seq. (“WFDL”), for terminating plaintiff Poulos as a sales representative for defendant NAAS Foods, Inc. Plaintiffs completed service on defendants by December 5, 1989. Petition for Removal 112, pp. 1-2. Defendants filed a Petition for Removal of this action on June 26, 1990, asserting that diversity of citizenship exists between the parties, and thus that removal is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441. The defendants allege the following citizenship of the parties: (a) plaintiff Gus Poulos was doing business as A.G.P. Marketing, a sole proprietorship, and is a resident of the [515]*515state of Illinois; and (b) defendant NAAS Foods, Inc. is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business located in Portland, Indiana. Before removal of this action, Ranks, Hovis, McDougall, and PLC Group (RHM Holdings U.S.A. Inc.) (hereafter “RHM”) were joined as defendants and were alleged in the Complaint to be the sole shareholder of defendant NAAS Foods, Inc. RHM admits it is the sole shareholder of NAAS Foods, Inc. with its principal place of business located in Illinois.

On June 11, 1990, a hearing was held before the Honorable David V. Jennings Jr., Branch 24 of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, on the motion of RHM for summary judgment. On June 20, 1990, Judge Jennings granted the summary judgment motion of RHM. The defendants assert that the amount in controversy exceeds $50,000.00, that this action is one over which the Court has original jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332, and that it may properly be removed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a).1

II. PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION TO REMAND

A. Parties’ Arguments

Plaintiffs moved to remand this action to Milwaukee County Circuit Court on July 20, 1990.2 As grounds, plaintiffs advance: (1) that defendants improperly removed the action because a nondiverse party, RHM, was dismissed by summary judgment and thus dismissed involuntarily with respect to the plaintiff; (2) that plaintiffs joined RHM in good faith, not fraudulently, and not for the purpose of defeating diversity; and (3) that contrary to defendants’ assertions in the Petition for Removal, plaintiffs joined RHM because a substantial legal basis exists for holding a parent company liable for a subsidiary in a claim for wrongful termination of a dealership. The plaintiffs thus move for the remand of the actions and attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in bringing this motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c).

In response the defendants assert that: (1) the plaintiffs joined RHM to defeat removal jurisdiction; (2) § 1446(b) allows for removal after the Court ordered dismissal of the nondiverse party, RHM; and (3) Poulos voluntarily allowed the dismissal of the nondiverse party, RHM.

In support of the first reason, the defendants assert initially that Poulos has failed to state a claim against RHM. The defendants assert that authority exists that the parent company shareholder (RHM) is not liable for the alleged wrongs of the subsidiary corporation (NAAS Foods, Inc.). For this proposition the defendants cite Consumer’s Co-Op of Walworth County v. Olsen, 142 Wis.2d 465, 475, 419 N.W.2d 211 (1988); 1 Fletcher’s Cyclopedia of Corporations § 43.10 (1990). The defendants state further that pursuant to the language of the WFDL, only grantors are liable for a violation. Wis.Stat. § 135.06. The defendants conclude that the only valid basis on which RHM could be joined as a defendant is to “pierce the veil” between the two corporations to hold it liable for NAAS’s debts. Yet defendants contend that Poulos never stated a claim to establish this theory of liability because he failed to allege that RHM abused the corporate form of NAAS such that NAAS had no separate existence of its own; that recognition of the corporate form would constitute a fraud or create an injustice; and that this alleged abuse of the corporate form caused Poulos’s alleged loss.

As evidence for the second reason, the defendants aver that no case law exists from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit adopting the “voluntary /involuntary” distinction as prevent[516]*516ing removal. The defendants argue that the legislative history of § 1446(b) does not demonstrate a Congressional intent to limit removal only to eases in which a plaintiff voluntarily dismisses a nondiverse defendant. The defendants thus argue that the “plain meaning” of § 1446 allows for removal, in that a court order exists which creates diversity jurisdiction.

To buttress their third reason, the defendants state that even if this Court accepts the voluntary/involuntary distinction for purposes of determining the propriety of removal, Poulos’s actions in this case indicate that he voluntarily gave up his right to pursue a claim against RHM. The defendants argue that a “constructive voluntary termination” of Poulos’s case against RHM occurred when he mounted a token resistance to RHM’s summary judgment motion. See Defendant’s Brief in Opposition to Motion to Remand pp. 14-15.

B. Discussion

1. Defendants’ First Reason Not to Remand: Fraudulent Joinder3

For an action to be properly removed from state court, the district court must have been able to exercise original jurisdiction over the original claims. 28 U.S.C. § 1441(a). An additional requirement in diversity actions is that no properly joined and served defendant can be “a citizen of the State in which such action is brought.” 28 U.S.C. § 1441(b).4

A plaintiff cannot defeat a defendant’s right of removal on the basis of diversity of citizenship by the “fraudulent joinder” of a nondiverse defendant against whom the plaintiff has no real cause of action. Rose v. Giamatti, 721 F.Supp. 906, 913 (S.D.Ohio 1989) (citing inter alia Wilson v. Republic Iron & Steel Co., 257 U.S. 92, 97, 42 S.Ct. 35, 37, 66 L.Ed. 144 (1921)). The removing party bears the burden of establishing federal jurisdiction. B., Inc. v. Miller Brewing Co., 663 F.2d 545 (5th Cir.1981).

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132 F.R.D. 513, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13461, 1990 WL 150200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/poulos-v-naas-foods-inc-wied-1990.