Ramirez v. The Geo Group, Inc.

Opinion

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7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 RAYMOND RAMIREZ, et al., CASE NO. 18cv2136-LAB (MSB) 10

Plaintiffs, 11 ORDER GRANTING JOINT MOTION vs. TO REMAND [Dkt. 104] 12 THE GEO GROUP, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 The parties have reached a global settlement that resolves both this action and 15 other related actions, including one in San Diego County Superior Court and several 16 others pending in various state and federal courts throughout California. On January 10, 17 2020, the parties jointly moved to stay this action while they finalized a joint dismissal as 18 part of that global settlement. Given that the Court had already certified a limited class, 19 the Court ordered additional briefing as to whether it had authority to grant a joint 20 dismissal without being independently satisfied that the global settlement (reached in 21 another court but encompassing the claims at issue here) was fair. The parties submitted 22 the required briefing1 and now move to remand this action to San Diego County Superior 23 Court, where it will be consolidated with related state court proceedings and the global 24 25 1 Relying on the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Negrete v. Allianz Life Ins. Co., 523 F.3d 1091 26 (9th Cir. 2008), the parties argue that the Court does indeed have the authority to dismiss (or remand) a case with certified class claims without being independently satisfied of the 27 settlement’s fairness. To do otherwise, they submit, would be to violate the Anti-Injunction 28 Act. 1 || settlement can be approved. The parties’ motion is GRANTED, and this action is 2 || REMANDED to San Diego County Superior Court. The clerk is directed to close the case. 3 IT IS SO ORDERED. 4 || Dated: February 19, 2020 (tm / A {4 WY 5 HONORABLE LARRY ALAN BURNS 6 Chief United States District Judge 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28