system: You are a legal assistant. Answer concisely and accurately. When legal text is provided, rely on it and do not invent facts.

user: Read the case excerpt and choose the best holding from the options. Case excerpt: at *9. See also Simmons, 324 F.Supp.2d at 916-17 (refusing to find fraudulent j ssociates as the agent of U.S. Bank’s predecessor Firstar is “the principal matter in dispute” in this case, any finding of non-liability as to Pierce & Associates “manifestly [goes] to the merits of the action as an entirety, and not to the joinder.” Cockrell, 232 U.S. at 153, 34 S.Ct. 278. See also Williams v. Union Nat’l Life Ins. Co., No. Civ. A.5:03CV46(BR)(S), 2004 WL 2151283, at *2 (S.D.Miss. Sept.20, 2004) (refusing to find fraudulent joinder based on defenses common to diverse and non-diverse defendants where the defenses “equally affect all defendants in this case through the doctrine of respondeat superior.”); In re New England Mut. Life Ins. Co. Sales Practices Litig., 324 F.Supp.2d at 305 (<HOLDING>); Jenkins v. Union Nat’l Life Ins. Co., No. Options: A. holding that were the court to find fraudulent joinder as to a nondiverse defendant on the basis of evidence equally dispositive of the liability of that defendant and a nondiverse defendant a refusal later in the proceedings to give judgment for the diverse defendant on the same grounds in turn would require the court to revisit a ruling that the nondiverse defendant was fraudulently joined B. holding that a nondiverse defendant can be disregarded in the jurisdictional analysis when there is no factual detail at all to support any claims against him C. holding that because the plaintiffs invoked the jurisdiction of the state court in the first instance the application of england has no relevance here D. holding that a statecourt order providing for severance and separate trials of claims against a diverse defendant and a nondiverse defendant did not permit removal of a plaintiffs claim against the diverse defendant where the claims had not been separately docketed in state court and the plaintiffs claim against the nondiverse defendant had been removed together with the claim against the diverse defendant E. holding that plaintiffs had not fraudulently joined nondiverse defendants where the plaintiffs claims were based on respondeat superior if no cause of action can be stated against the nondiverse defendants for their alleged torts no case exists against defendant new england for example if a statute of limitation has run on a claim against a nondiverse defendant it necessarily has run for new england accordingly the arguments offered by new england to prove fraudulent joinder simultaneously show that no case can be made against the diverse defendant

assistant: The best answer is E. holding that plaintiffs had not fraudulently joined nondiverse defendants where the plaintiffs claims were based on respondeat superior if no cause of action can be stated against the nondiverse defendants for their alleged torts no case exists against defendant new england for example if a statute of limitation has run on a claim against a nondiverse defendant it necessarily has run for new england accordingly the arguments offered by new england to prove fraudulent joinder simultaneously show that no case can be made against the diverse defendant