Wesley v. Mississippi Transportation Commission

857 F. Supp. 523, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10036, 1994 WL 380915
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedJuly 19, 1994
Docket1:94-cv-00253
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 857 F. Supp. 523 (Wesley v. Mississippi Transportation Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wesley v. Mississippi Transportation Commission, 857 F. Supp. 523, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10036, 1994 WL 380915 (S.D. Miss. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

BARBOUR, Chief Judge.

This cause is before the Court on the following motions: (1) Plaintiffs Motion for Remand; (2) Motion to Dismiss of Defendants Mississippi Transportation Commission and Mississippi Department of Transportation (“the State Defendants”); (3) Motion to Dismiss of Defendant Roger Don Roberts (“Roberts”); and (4) Motion to Dismiss of Defendant Terex Corporation (“Terex”). Having considered the Motions, the responses, all attachments, and supporting and opposing memoranda, the Court finds that (1) the Motion to Remand is not well taken and should be denied; (2) the Motion to Dismiss of the State Defendants is well taken and should be granted; (3) the Motion to Dismiss of Defendant Roberts is not well taken and should be denied; and (4) the Motion to Dismiss of Defendant Terex is not well taken and should be denied.

I. Background

On April 4, 1991, the automobile driven by Plaintiffs’ decedent, Ronald E. Wesley (“Wesley”), collided into the rear of a tractor trailer driven by Defendant Roberts on Highway 49 in Richland, Mississippi, and as a result, Wesley was killed. On April 1, 1994, Plaintiffs filed suit in the First Judicial District of the Circuit Court of Hinds County, Mississippi, against the Defendants. Plaintiffs allege that the State Defendants are liable to them because Highway 49 at the scene of the collision was negligently designed and did not have reasonably prudent signs and warnings. Plaintiffs allege that *526 Fruehauf Trailer Corporation (“Fruehauf’) is hable to them because the trailer into which Wesley’s automobile collided was negligently designed, manufactured and distributed by Fruehauf. 1 The Plaintiffs assert claims against Terex based upon its alleged status as the parent company of Defendant Frue-hauf and its negligent failure to provide reasonably prudent and careful safety management services to Fruehauf. Plaintiffs allege that Roberts, the driver, negligently operated the tractor trailer into which Wesley collided. Finally, Plaintiffs allege that Merchants Dutch Express (“Merchants”), as the employer of Roberts, is hable to them for neghgently faihng to properly train, manage and supervise Roberts. As a result of the allegations set forth above, Plaintiffs claim that the named Defendants proximately caused or contributed to the death of Wesley.

On May 3, 1994, five of the seven Defendants filed a Notice of Removal and removed the action to this Court, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441, based upon diversity of citizenship under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The State Defendants did not join in the petition for removal and have not joined in that petition to date.

II. Motion for Remand

Plaintiffs assert that because ah Defendants did not join in the petition for removal that this case must be remanded to state court. Plaintiffs also assert that the State Defendants are properly joined in this matter, and that Plaintiffs have a possibility of recovery against such Defendants. Defendants Terex and Fruehauf assert that a state is not a citizen for purposes of diversity of citizenship, and therefore complete diversity exists between the Plaintiffs and Defendants. These Defendants also assert that the State Defendants, as alter egos of the State of Mississippi, cannot invoke diversity jurisdiction, nor can they remove a case on that basis. Defendants Roberts and Merchants responded 2 to the Motion for Remand by agreeing with the arguments of Defendants Terex and Fruehauf and asserting that the State Defendants were not properly joined because they were immune from suit at the time the Plaintiffs’ cause of action accrued. To decide the Motion for Remand, the Court need only determine whether the State Defendants are entitled to sovereign immunity and will therefore not address the other arguments asserted by the Defendants.

Generally, all defendants in a cause of action must join in a petition for removal. Tri-Cities Newspapers, Inc. v. Tri-Cities Printing Pressmen and Assistants’ Local 319, 427 F.2d 325, 326-27 (5th Cir.1970). This general rule is limited by the fact that only those defendants who are properly joined and served are required to join in the petition for removal. Getty Oil Corp. v. Insurance Co. of North America, 841 F.2d 1254, 1262 (5th Cir.1988) (citations omitted). The removing Defendants have the burden of proving that the State Defendants are not proper parties to this suit: “The removing party must prove that there is absolutely no possibility that the plaintiff will be able to establish a cause of action against the instate defendant in state court, or that there has been outright fraud in the plaintiffs pleadings of jurisdictional facts.” Green v. Amerada Hess Corp., 707 F.2d 201, 205 (5th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1039, 104 S.Ct. 701, 79 L.Ed.2d 166 (1984).

In determining whether remand is appropriate th[e] court must evaluate all of the factual allegations in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, resolving all contested issues of substantive fact in favor of *527 the plaintiff_ In addition, any uncertainties in controlling substantive law must be resolved in favor of the plaintiff.... Applying these rubrics, the court may find fraudulent joinder only if it concludes that the plaintiff has no possibility of establishing a valid cause of action against the instate defendant.

Laughlin v. Prudential Ins. Co., 882 F.2d 187, 190 (5th Cir.1989) (citations omitted).

For the purposes of this Motion, the parties have not presented any disputed issues of fact. The only dispute concerns whether the State Defendants are immune from suit. 3 Plaintiffs assert that under Mississippi law, the State Defendants are not entitled to sovereign immunity. To the contrary, Defendants Roberts and Merchants assert that the State Defendants are entitled to sovereign immunity and were as of the time when this cause of action accrued. 4

In Pruett v. City of Rosedale, 421 So.2d 1046, 1052-53 (Miss.1982) (en bane), the Mississippi Supreme Court abolished the judicial doctrine of sovereign immunity which had long protected the state government from suit. 5 Because this decision was such a radical change in the law, and in order to give the legislature time to resolve the problems that the abrogation of sovereign immunity would create, the Pruett

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Bluebook (online)
857 F. Supp. 523, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10036, 1994 WL 380915, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wesley-v-mississippi-transportation-commission-mssd-1994.