Knight v. Windstream Supply, LLC

Summary

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia grants Plaintiffs Trent and Jennifer Knight’s motion to remand a wrongful-death negligence action to the Superior Court of Brantley County, Georgia. The court concludes that the one-year limitation in 28 U.S.C. § 1446(c)(1) applies to the defendant’s second, diversity-based removal attempt, despite the case’s earlier removal on federal-question grounds, and finds no bad-faith exception. The court therefore remands the action to state court.

Holdings

1. The one-year limitation in 28 U.S.C. § 1446(c)(1) applies to a later removal based on diversity jurisdiction even though the action was initially removable and previously removed on federal-question grounds.
2. Because the statute does not directly address the unusual second-removal circumstances and Plaintiffs did not act in bad faith, the action must be remanded to state court.

Questions Presented

1. Whether 28 U.S.C. § 1446(c)(1)’s one-year limitation on removal based on diversity jurisdiction applies when the action was previously removable and previously removed on federal-question grounds, but diversity jurisdiction arose more than one year after commencement of the state-court action.
2. Whether the procedural history and the absence of bad faith by Plaintiffs required remand under the rule that doubts about removal must be resolved in favor of remand.

Disposition

remanded