By: Derek Hawkins//January 10, 2017//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Tri-State Water Treatment, Inc. et al v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc.,
Case No.: 16-3938
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and FLAUM and ROVNER, Circuit Judges
Focus: Removal – Class Action
In First Bank v. DJL Properties, LLC, 598 F.3d 915 (7th Cir. 2010), we held that a counterclaim-defendant is not entitled to remove a case from state court to federal court under the provisions of the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), 28 U.S.C. § 1453(b). Today’s case presents a related question: whether, even though the original counterclaim-defendant is barred from removing, an additional counterclaim defendant may nevertheless do so. We conclude that the statute does not support treating an original counterclaim-defendant differently from a new one, and so we affirm the district court’s order remanding this case to state court.
Affirmed