Drew Ashton v. Delta Airlines, Inc.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Central District of California held that Delta failed to establish fraudulent joinder of the individual defendants in an employment-related action. Because the plaintiff and individual defendants were California citizens, the court found no diversity jurisdiction and remanded the case to Los Angeles County Superior Court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Holdings

1. Delta failed to establish fraudulent joinder because it did not show that there was no possibility that Ashton could prevail on the intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim against the individual defendants under California law.
2. On the record presented, Delta did not establish that California workers' compensation exclusivity necessarily barred Ashton's intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim against the individual defendants.
3. Because the individual defendants were not shown to be fraudulently joined and Ashton, Greenstein, and Johnson were California citizens, complete diversity was absent and the court lacked diversity subject matter jurisdiction.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the individual defendants were fraudulently joined so that their California citizenship could be disregarded for purposes of diversity jurisdiction.
2. Whether the intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim against the individual defendants was necessarily barred by California's workers' compensation exclusivity provisions.
3. Whether the action had to be remanded because complete diversity was absent.

Disposition

remanded