United States Third Circuit

In a dispute involving the removal of a class action, district court judgment finding removal improper is reversed where: 1) plaintiff had no reasonable basis to believe that defendant JEVIC was amenable to suit, and thus defendant was a fraudulently joined party and its status as a defendant could not be used to defeat otherwise proper federal jurisdiction; and 2) the court erred in remanding the case to state court as defendant was not properly before the district court since it was never served with legal process.

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/06/2009
• Decided 07/31/2009
• Published 07/31/2009

Judges

• Before SLOVITER and HARDIMAN, Circuit Judges and POLLAK, District Judge.

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Christopher Landau, [Argued], Scott M. Abeles, Gary D. Anderson, Kirkland & Ellis, Washington, DC, Richard J.DeFortuna, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Philadelphia, PA, Nathan R. Mather, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Princeton, NJ, John C. Gillespie, Parker McCay, Marlton, NJ, Attorneys for Appellants Michael T. Gillen, Sun Capital Partners Inc., F. Dixon McElwee, Jr., and Gary Talarico.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert F. O'Brien, [Argued], O'Brien, Belland & Bushinsky, Ronald A. Graziano, Cherry Hill, Nicholas M. Centrella, Vincent T. Cieslik, Conrad O'Brien Gellman & Rohn, P.C., Philadelphia, PA, Attorneys for Appellees William J. Brown, Lynn D. Brown, Grisel Cairs, Noemi Camacho, Linda Anstic, Donald E. McCoy, Thomas K. Turner and Ron Wayne.