United States Ninth Circuit

The district court's order remanding a putative class action lawsuit to California state court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA)'s "local controversy" exception to federal jurisdiction, is vacated and remanded, where: 1) there must ordinarily be facts in evidence to support a finding that two-thirds of putative class members are local state citizens, which is one of the local controversy exception's requirements, if that question is disputed before the district court; and 2) a pure inference regarding the citizenship of prospective class members may be sufficient if the class is defined as limited to citizens of the state in question, but otherwise such a finding should not be based on guesswork.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/27/2013
• Published 11/27/2013

Judges

• CLIFTON

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel