United States Fifth Circuit

In a class action brought by the Attorney General of Louisiana alleging that defendants-insurance companies failed to pay covered insurance claims following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and as a result breached the insurance contracts to which the state was a partial assignee, denial of the state's motion to remand after the case was removed to federal court is affirmed over claims that: 1) the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) does not apply; and 2) even if it does apply by its terms, it cannot abrogate sovereign immunity from federal process, or at the least Congress did not clearly do so in CAFA. The state waived immunity by bringing a suit with private citizens.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/11/2008
• Published 04/14/2008

Judges

• PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:, Before HIGGINBOTHAM, STEWART and ELROD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Calvin Clifford Fayard, Jr., Denham Springs, LA, Isabel B. Wingerter, Baton Rouge, LA, for Plaintiffs-Appellants., Samuel Issacharoff (argued), New York University School of Law, New York City, for State of LA.


• For Appellees:
  
• Alan J. Yacoubian, Neal J. Favret, Rachael Patton Catalanotto, Johnson, Johnson, Barrios & Yacoubian, Judy Y. Barrasso, Susan M. Rogge, H. Minor Pipes, III, Stephen L. Miles, Barrasso, Usdin, Kupperman, Freeman & Sarver, Ralph S. Hubbard, III, Seth Andrew Schmeeckle, Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard, Richard Edward King, Matthew Joseph Lindsay, Galloway, Johnson, Tompkins, Burr & Smith, Wayne J. Lee, Stephen G. Bullock, Mary Lue Dumestre, Andrea Leigh Fannin, Stone, Pigman, Walther & Wittmann, Maura Z. Pelleteri, Amy S. Malish, Krebs, Farley & Pelleteri, Gordon Paul Serou, Jr., Law Offices of Gordon P. Serou, Jr., New Orleans, LA, Walter D. Willson, Wells, Marble & Hurst, Ridgeland, MS, Neil C. Abramson, Jacqueline M. Brettner, Harry A. Rosenberg, Phelps Dunbar, Patrick D. Derouen, Laurie L. Dearmond, Porteous, Hainkel & Johnson, Julia A. Dietz, Degan, Blanchard & Nash, Wendy Hickok Robinson, Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Duplantis & Eagan, Gerard E. Wimberly, Jr., Daniel T. Plunkett, McGlinchey Stafford, Ethan N. Penn, Musgrave, McLachlan & Penn, LLC, Edward J. Lilly, Crull, Castaing & Lilly, Deborah B. Rouen, Adams & Reese, John W. Waters, Jr., Bienvenu, Foster, Ryan & O'Bannon, LLC, Nancy Scott Degan, Paul Lee Peyronnin, Kent Andrew Lambert, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, Thomas R. Blum, Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, New Orleans, LA, Richard Joseph Doren, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Los Angeles, CA, Daniel Wintrop Nelson, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Washington, DC, Richard L. Fenton (argued), Steven M. Levy, Alan S. Gilbert, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, Chicago, IL, Katherine B. Armstrong, Sheila L. Birnbaum, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, New York City, Charles Louis Chassaignac, IV, Porteous, Hainkel & Johnson, John Powers Wolff, III, Christopher Keith Jones, Keogh, Cox & Wilson, Ltd., Anthony Joseph Rollo, Jr., McGlinchey Stafford, Marshall M. Redmon, Phelps Dunbar, Baton Rouge, LA, Walter D. Willson, Wells, Marble & Hurst, Ridgeland, MS, Thomas Hebert Huval, Huval, Veazey, Felder & Aertker, Covington, LA, John E. Unsworth, Jr., William Glenn Burns, Lauren E. Brisbi, Dominic J. Ovella, Sean Patrick Mount, Anne Elizabeth Medo, Daniel Michael Redmann, John Christopher Dippel, Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale, Lawrence J. Duplass, C. Michael Pfister, Kelly C. Bogart, Jaime Michele Cambre, Duplass, Zwain, Bourgeois & Morton, Howard Bruce Kaplan, Bernard, Cassaissa, Elliott & Davis, John R. Walker, Allen & Gooch, Christopher Raymond Pennison, Jay M. Lonero, Larzelere, Picou, Wells, Simpson, Lonero, Metairie, LA, Anne D. LeJeune, McGlinchey, Stafford, Youngblood & Bendalin, Dallas, TX, Ben Louis Mayeaux, James L. Pate, Laborde & Neuner, Lafayette, LA, Levon G. Hovnatanian, Christopher Weldon Martin, Martin R. Sadler, Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, Houston, TX, Stephen E. Goldman (argued), Wystan Michael Ackerman, Robinson & Cole, Hartford, CT, for Defendants-Appellees.