Solanics v. Republic Steel Corp.

34 F. Supp. 951, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2705
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedSeptember 13, 1940
DocketNo. 20053
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 34 F. Supp. 951 (Solanics v. Republic Steel Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Solanics v. Republic Steel Corp., 34 F. Supp. 951, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2705 (N.D. Ohio 1940).

Opinion

WILKIN, District Judge.

Case considered on second motion to remand. The case was originally filed in the court of common pleas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the petition claiming damages for assault and battery. An amended petition was filed alleging that the assault and battery resulted from a conspiracy by the defendants to violate the National Labor Relations Act, Sec. 151, et seq. Title 29, U.S.C., 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq. The defendants thereupon removed the case to this court. The plaintiff moved to remand; but this court overruled his motion because the allegations of the amended petition regarding violation of the Labor Act formed an essential element of the plaintiff’s cause of action and brought the case within the, terms of Sec. 71, Tit. 28 U.S.C., 28 U.S.C.A. § 71, i. e., a case arising under the laws of the United States.

Thereafter, and before answer was filed by the defendants, the plaintiff filed a second amended complaint and omitted all the allegations regarding the National Labor Relations Act and the plan, design, and purpose of the defendants to violate its provisions. Such second amended complaint reduced the cause of action again, to one simply of damages for assault and [953]*953battery. Thereupon plaintiff filed a Second motion to remand.

Sec. 80, Tit. 28 U.S.C., 28 U.S.C.A. § 80, provides: “If in any suit commenced in a district court, or removed from a State court to a district court of the United States, it shall appear to the satisfaction of the said district court, at any time after such suit has been brought or removed thereto, that such suit does not really and substantially involve a dispute or controversy properly within the jurisdiction of said district court * * * the said district court shall proceed no further therein, but shall dismiss the suit or remand it to the court from which it was removed, as justice may require, and shall make such order as to costs as shall be just”.

Plaintiff maintains that this section is controlling and that since all allegations regarding federal law are omitted from the second amended complaint, the cause must be remanded.

The defendants, however, insist that the question must be determined by reference to the pleadings at the time of removal; and that the jurisdiction of this court cannot be affected by the second amended complaint.

Both sides rely mainly upon the decision in St. Paul Indemnity Co. v. Cab. Co., 303 U.S. 283, 58 S.Ct. 586, 82 L.Ed. 845. The defendants rely upon the following language of the opinion:

“Moreover, the status of the case as disclosed by the plaintiff’s complaint is controlling in the case of a removal, since the defendant must file his petition before the time for answer or forever lose his right to remove. * * * And though, as here, the plaintiff after removal, by stipulation, by affidavit, or by amendment of his pleadings, reduces the claim below the requisite amount, this does not deprive the district court of jurisdiction.

“Thus events occurring subsequent to removal which reduce the amount recoverable, whether beyond the plaintiff’s control or the result of his volition, do not oust the district court’s jurisdiction once it has attached.” 303 U.S. pages 291, 292, 293, 58 S.Ct. page 591, 82 L.Ed. 845.

The plaintiff, on the other hand, relies upon the following language, 303 U.S. page 295, 58 S.Ct. page 593, 82 L.Ed. 845: “In the case of a separable controversy, if, after removal, the plaintiff discontinues or dismisses as to the defendant who removed, so that there no longer exists any separable controversy, the cause must be remanded. If a cause be removed on this ground the whole case, including the controversy between citizens of the same state, is taken over by the federal court only because one or more of the defendants is entitled to invoke its jurisdiction. The basis of federal jurisdiction failing, it is proper that the remaining parties, who were involuntarily taken into the federal court, should, upon the cessation of the separable controversy (diversity of citizenship) which was the cause of their transmission to another tribunal, -have their case returned to the state court.” (Parenthetical phrase inserted.)

No case has been cited by counsel nor found by the court which decides the exact question presented in this case, i. e., whether a case must be remanded or dismissed when the complaint is so amended after removal that the cause loses its character as one “arising under the laws of the United States”.

It seems to this court that the language of the Supreme Court to the effect that federal jurisdiction will not be affected by amendment of pleadings after removal, must be restricted to the specific facts of the cases in which such language was used. If that is done, the pronouncement seems to apply only where the amendment reduces the amount prayed for (303 U.S. 283, 58 S.Ct. 586, 82 L.Ed. 845) or where “if it did not sufficiently appear at the time of the petition for removal that the cause was not separable, it did so appear when the second amended complaint was filed.” Pullman Co. et al. v. Jenkins et al., 305 U.S. 534, 537, 59 S.Ct. 347, 349, 83 L. Ed. 334. In other words, it seems settled by the holdings of the Supreme Court that if a case has been properly removed, it will not be remanded merely because the plaintiff reduces the amount of his demand below the jurisdictional requirement, or because he changes the cause of his action to make it no longer separable as between defendants of diverse citizenship. These are exceptions to the general rule, and the reasons for the exceptions are set forth in the cases referred to and the cases cited therein.

The jurisdiction of the United States District Court rests mainly upon two classes of cases: those involving diversity of [954]*954citizenship between the parties, and those arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States. Tit. 28 U.S. C.A. § 41, subd. 1(a), (b). The statute places a condition upon the jurisdiction of such court by limiting it generally to cases “where the matter in controversy exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of $3,000”. And the courts have held that the requirement as to diversity of citizenship is not met when there are citizens of the same state on both sides of the controversy. But the courts have recognized that if there is a separable issue between parties from entirely different states, then the requirement is met and federal jurisdiction attaches to the whole case.

.While the courts have refused to allow parties to play fast and loose with federal jurisdiction by arbitrarily changing after removal the amount involved in or the separable nature of the controversy, yet they have quite generally held that federal jurisdiction terminates whenever the real and substantial basis for such jurisdiction disappears; i. e., when all diversity of citizenship between the parties is eliminated.

“If a cause pending in a state court against several defendants is removed thence to the Circuit Court of the United States on the petition of one of the defendants under the act of 1875, 18 Stat.

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34 F. Supp. 951, 1940 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/solanics-v-republic-steel-corp-ohnd-1940.