Removal Jurisdiction Clarification Act of 2020

Bill: 116-hr-5801
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [D-GA-4]
Introduced: 2020-02-07
Policy area: Law
Subjects: Civil actions and liability

Federal district courts

Jurisdiction and venue

State and local courts
Latest action: action_date: 2020-03-10
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.

Summaries:
action_date: 2020-02-07
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Removal Jurisdiction Clarification Act of 2020 </b></p>  <p>This bill requires federal courts to remand to state court, upon motion, civil actions that are removed to federal court solely on the basis of diversity jurisdiction, if a citizen of the state where the action has been brought has joined as a defendant but has not yet been served. Such actions must be remanded if such a defendant is served within the eligible time period.</p>

tv_txt: I 116th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 5801 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 7, 2020 Mr. Johnson of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Nadler , Ms. Dean , Ms. Garcia of Texas , Mr. Cartwright , Mr. Raskin , Mr. Swalwell of California , Mr. Cohen , Ms. Schakowsky , Ms. Norton , Mr. Rush , Mrs. Watson Coleman , and Mr. Espaillat ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend title 28, United States Code, to establish a procedure for remand of a civil action that has been removed before service on a forum defendant, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Removal Jurisdiction Clarification Act of 2020 . 2. Removal before service on a forum defendant (a) Removal Section 1447 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: (f) (1) A court shall remand a case described in paragraph (2) to the State court from which it was removed if— (A) within 30 days after filing of the notice of removal under section 1446(a), or within the time specified by State law for service of process, whichever is shorter, a defendant described in paragraph (2)(B) is properly served in the manner prescribed by State law; and (B) a motion to remand is made in accordance with, and within the time specified by, the first sentence of subsection (c). (2) This subsection shall apply to a case in which— (A) a civil action is removed solely on the basis of the jurisdiction under section 1332(a) of this title; and (B) at the time of removal, any party in interest properly joined as a defendant is a citizen of the State in which such action is brought, but has not been properly served. . (b) Conforming amendment Section 1448 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by striking In all cases and inserting Except as provided in section 1447(f), in all cases . (c) Effective date (1) In general The amendments made by this Act shall take effect upon the expiration of the 30-day period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, and shall apply to any civil action commenced on or after such date. (2) Commencement of State actions With respect to a civil action commenced in State court and removed to Federal court, the civil action shall be deemed to have commenced on the date that the civil action was commenced, within the meaning of State law, in State court.