United States Ninth Circuit

In this personal injury litigation involving two of twenty-six pending injury cases, plaintiffs moved for coordination in the state trial court pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure section 404. The district court's orders granting motions to remand to state court are reversed, where: 1) the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) extends federal removal jurisdiction for certain class actions and for mass actions in which monetary relief claims of 100 or more persons are proposed to be tried jointly on grounds that the plaintiffs' claims involve common laws or facts; and 2) plaintiffs' petitions to coordinate actions under section 404 constituted proposals for these actions to be tried jointly, making the actions "mass action" subject to removal and federal jurisdiction under CAFA.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/18/2014
• Published 11/18/2014

Judges

• Gould

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel