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Civil Procedure — class actions — removal

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 10, 2014//

Civil Procedure — class actions — removal

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 10, 2014//

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U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Civil Procedure — class actions — removal

Where the plaintiff would not irrevocably commit to seeking less than $5 million, the district court must determine whether the amount at issue exceeds that amount.

“What we are left with to guide our decision is that the plaintiff did not irrevocably commit to obtaining less than $5 million for the class, and Pushpin’s estimate that the damages recoverable by the class if it prevails on the merits may well equal or exceed that amount may be reliable enough to preclude remanding the case to the state court. The only ground on which the district judge rejected Pushpin’s estimate and so decided to remand the case was that most of the claims on behalf of the class are barred by the Rooker-Feldman rule. That was a mistake; and the judge was also mistaken in saying that ‘there is a strong presumption in favor of remand’ when a case has been removed under the Class Action Fairness Act. There is not. Back Doctors Ltd. v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Ins. Co., supra, 637 F.3d at 830. The judge will have to determine anew whether the amount in controversy reaches the statutory minimum, thus barring remand, or does not, thus requiring remand. We don’t have enough information to be able to make that determination ourselves.”

Reversed and Remanded.

14-8006 Johnson v. Pushpin Holdings, LLC

Petition for Leave to Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Kocoras, J., Posner, J.

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